Improving eye care for Indigenous Australians in primary health care settings.

BACKGROUND: This paper aims to assess the barriers and solutions to the delivery of eye care in primary care settings and solutions to improve the use of comprehensive eye care among Indigenous Australians. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Qualitative, mixed method study participants include Aboriginal community members, and health and eye care providers in urban, rural and remote settings. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Present evidence for health care providers to better understand and address some of the barriers that limit access to eye care in primary care settings.
RESULTS: Patient perspectives on barriers to accessing eye care and reasons they choose to seek care or not are presented. Health system barriers identified by health and eye care providers are also presented. Additionally, key enablers for improving access to eye care through primary care services are identified.
CONCLUSION: Primary health care services have an important role in Indigenous eye health. There is a critical role for primary care in the coordination of the patient journey and cooperating with other services to improve access to comprehensive eye care. Through improved provision of primary eye care, monitoring of Indigenous eye health indicators and supporting patients to access eye care, it is possible to close the gap for vision.