The Australian Government has invested a further $6.3 million towards developing the Health Data Portal, used to report on Indigenous health data.
The portal, used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services and funded under the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme (IAHP), allows healthcare providers to publish reports for public consumption or exchange data and other files with authenticated individuals, businesses and other government agencies.
It aims to provide a simplified and streamlined process for organisations to deliver health services in communities.
The portal is also used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services to submit National Key Performance Indicators (nKPIs) and from July 1, will include the Online Services Report (OSR) and the Health Care Provider (HCP) number report.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare maintains and reports on the nKPI data collection.
nKPIs are determined to improve the delivery of primary healthcare services by supporting quality improvement activities among service providers. They also support policy and planning at the national and state/territory level by monitoring progress and highlighting areas for improvement.
According to Minister for Indigenous Health Ken Wyatt, the extra funding comes as a result of the success of data collected in January.
“In January 2019, 100 per cent of 238 reporting health services successfully submitted their nKPI data through the portal,” he said, in a statement.
“The success of the January 2019 data collection can be attributed to the co-design approach, which saw the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector involved in the development of the portal. This included working together on the design, prototype and user testing of the portal.”
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Wyatt also said the funding signifies the Federal Government’s commitment to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services to develop practical, evidence-based policy and deliver programs that will make a difference to the lives of First Australians.
“This collection is one of the most advanced primary healthcare data sets available as it gathers care and outcome data from all IAHP health services. It is part of our focus on closing the gap and supporting culturally appropriate primary health care and programs,” he said.
“Ensuring high quality primary healthcare is delivered in a culturally and competent way is a key to improving the health and wellbeing of First Australians in communities across Australia.”
