Appendix A - Need and Impact Analysis

3.0    Determined Need
3.1    Primary Health Network
The Australian Government’s, Department of Health provides Primary Health Network (PHN)
profiles for regions of Australia. The PHN profile for Central Queensland, Wide Bay and
Sunshine Coast identifies a population growth of 5.47% between 2012 and 2016.

The region’s population is broken down identifying 19.14% of people are over the age of 65,
and the growth of aged persons increased by 17.56% between 2012 and 2016. Despite
overall population growth for the region being relatively low, the increase in persons aged
over 65 in the region has been significant.

In 2017-2018 the Department of Health conducted a Needs Assessment for the Central
Queensland, Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast PHN region. The report states that the significant
increase in persons aged over 65 (aforementioned above), is due to a decrease in birth rates
and increased life longevity. In 2016 1 in 5 people were aged over 65, with 15% of these
people suffering from severe or profound disabilities. The report stated that there is
currently a shortage of appropriate care options available in the PHN catchment to meet the
expected growth and demand.

People over the age of 65 within the PHN region are predicted to make up 18.4% of the
population by 2021 which is noticeably higher than the predicted 15.9% average for
Queensland.

3.2    Health Care for Persons Over 65
Persons over 65 are more susceptible to experiencing health complications than people
under 65. In 2016-17 there were just under 38 million Medicare claims for unreferred GP
attendances for people aged over 65 equating to 29% of the total claims. There were more
than twice as many claims per person for those aged over 65 than those aged under 65.

For specialists the statistics were higher. There were 13.9 million specialist attendances
claimed through Medicare in 2016-2017 for people aged over 65, representing 45% of all
specialist attendance claims. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identified people
aged 65 and over made 4 times as many claims for specialist services compared to those
under 65.

Many factors contribute to elderly persons requiring more frequent medical care, including
the development of diseases associated with age (arthritis, dementia, heart disease),




13 February 2019                            Planning Report                      Page 5 of 17