More regional Aussies go to hospitals for low urgency care, AIHW finds

For every 1000 regional Australians who attended the emergency department, 159 were triaged as semi-urgent or non-urgent.

For metropolitan Australians, that number is only 97.

Nicole O'Reilly, chairperson for the National Rural Health Alliance said access to primary healthcare services was the likely cause.

"Not being able to access primary health care services in rural and remote areas could mean people tend to end up being sicker before they seek help or it may be that the primary health care services aren't available," Ms O'Reilly said.

She said metropolitan areas were also more likely to have urgent care services outside of emergency departments.

Australians in regional and remote areas were more likely than their metropolitan counterparts to attend the emergency department because their GP wasn't available when required.

It was the second most common reason for regional and remote Australians to attend the emergency department - only following being taken to the hospital by an ambulance or having a serious condition.

That's according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023 Patient Experience Survey, which asked 25,934 Australians about their experiences with the healthcare system.

29.6% of Australians who live in remote areas reported their GP's availability as the reason they last attended the emergency department, almost twice as many as those in metropolitan areas.

Ms O'Reilly said in rural and remote Australia there are fewer GPs per population.

"Workforce data shows there are considerably less GPs providing primary health care in small, rural towns when compared with the major cities, and it goes down as you go to remote and very remote," she said.

According to the Royal Flying Doctor Service Best for the Bush 2023 report, more than 30,000 Australians in rural and remote areas need to drive at least 60 minutes to access a GP.

Ms O'Reilly said it was important to consider each town's specific context when implementing health solutions.

She said while the alliance welcomed the 2024-25 budget's health announcements, it failed to address geographical health inequities.

"One of the things the national health alliance is seeking from the government is a commitment towards place-based solution, to work with the region's community to actually address and respond to their needs," she said.

Around 2.6 per cent of Australians went to the emergency department because of long GP waiting times, regardless of whether they lived in metropolitan, regional or rural areas.

Similarly, the lower cost of attending the ED than a GP appointment was a consistently negligible consideration for Australians, regardless of where they lived.

For Australians in metropolitan areas, the second most common reason for going to the emergency department - after being taken by an ambulance or having a serious condition - was a lack of necessary equipment or facilities at their GP's office.

They were also more likely to be sent to the emergency department by their GP.

9.8 per cent of metropolitan Australians were sent to the emergency department by their GP, compared to just 5.6 per cent of regional Australians and 7 per cent of remote Australians.

The younger Australians were, the more likely they were to attend the emergency department with lower-urgency complaints, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

For every 1000 children under the age of 14 who went to the emergency department, 169.8 were triaged as either semi-urgent or non-urgent.

That's compared to just 70 for those aged over 80.