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chronic disease, early child development and growth, substance use and misuse, andfunctional and resilient families and communities. Poor health can also affectpeople’s educational attainment and ability to work.In the 2003 Report, access to health care services by Indigenous people wasquantified in terms of distance to the nearest health professional and nearestcommunity health centre. This information was sourced from the 2001 CommunityHousing and Infrastructure Needs Survey (CHINS) (ABS 2002). The CHINS wasconducted again in 2006 and data on access to primary health care are presented inthis section (ABS 2007).From consultations with Indigenous people and health policy makers in thepreparation of the 2005 Report, there was general agreement that distance is onlyone aspect influencing access to primary health care and that a more comprehensivemeasure was required to reflect the barriers faced by Indigenous people. Thisincludes those living in remote and non-remote areas. Indigenous people who live incities and towns, where clinics, doctors and other health professionals are at closereach, can face cultural, language and racism barriers that reduce their access toprimary health services. Cutcliffe (2004) reported examples of racism and culturalinsensitivity in mainstream health services and found that these were not uncommonexperiences for Indigenous people. These barriers lead to some Indigenous peoplenot being diagnosed and treated for disease in the early stages, when it is often moreeasily and effectively treated.In the 2005 Report, the ‘access to the nearest health professional’ indicator wasexpanded to include the use of health services more broadly as well as data onhospitalisations for potentially preventable chronic and vaccine-preventableconditions.To improve reporting on access to primary health care in the 2007 Report, thisindicator has been renamed ‘Access to primary health care’ and expanded onceagain to include:• expenditure on health care services for Indigenous people in 2001-02• 2001-02 to 2004-05 data on hospitalisations for potentially preventable chronicand acute conditions, vaccine-preventable conditions and sexually transmittedinfections• survey data from the ABS 2004-05 NATSIHS and 2006 CHINS on Indigenouspeople accessing primary health care services in 2001, 2004-05 and 2006.In addition to providing data on expenditure, hospitalisations and access to healthcare, this section presents three initiatives which were successfully implemented inNSW, Victoria and WA to improve primary health care services for IndigenousOVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007