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Aborigines miss out on heart surgery

By Julie Robotham Medical Editor

16 May 2005 - Aborigines are much less likely than other Australians to undergo artery surgery after a heart attack, despite being at higher risk of dying early from heart disease, a study has found.

Warren Walsh, a heart specialist at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, analysed the records of all heart attack patients admitted to public hospitals in Queensland between 1998 and 2002.

He found people who said they were indigenous were 40 per cent less likely than others to be given immediate angioplasty, a life-saving cardiology treatment. They were also less likely to have the procedure later.

Dr Walsh said one probable reason was that indigenous people were more likely to have other medical complications, such as obesity or diabetes, that made such surgery riskier. Non-indigenous people with such problems were also less likely to have angioplasty, he found.

But this suggested more resources should be directed towards preventive health programs in Aboriginal communities and to general practice-style medical care.

"The principal reason Aboriginal people die 20 years younger is heart disease," Dr Walsh said. It was also possible individual doctors subtly discriminated between potential patients when deciding their care, he said. "I don't think it's overt at all, but doctors still generally come from privileged backgrounds with little contact with Aboriginal people." They might unwittingly favour people more similar to themselves, he said.

His study is published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.

It comes after the federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, was accused of cultural insensitivity at the weekend for telling Aborigines to improve their lifestyle. "It doesn't matter who you are and where you're living; you can always make the conscious decision to eat better and exercise more," Mr Abbott said on ABC Radio, defending the inclusion in the budget of a healthy lifestyle program for young Aboriginal people.

The federal president of the Australian Medical Association, Bill Glasson, said that instead of the usual Medicare or Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme rebates - which were underused by Aborigines - the Government should give grants to local communities or geographic areas to allow them to run their own programs staffed by doctors or other health workers, setting their own health-care priorities.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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