Medicine Safety: Rural and remote care reveals the extreme challenges patients in rural and remote Australia have in accessing health care and the impact that this has on the safe and appropriate use of medicines.
Medicine safety: Rural and Remote Care
The report found:
- 72,500 rural and remote Australians admitted to hospital each year due to medicine-related problems
- The estimated cost to the Australian healthcare system of these admissions is $400 million each year. At least half of this harm is preventable.
- 1.3 million rural and remote Australians do not take their medicines at all or as intended adding an estimated $2.03 billion to our annual health care costs
The seven million Australians living in rural and remote Australians deserve better.
