Defining catchment boundaries and their populations for Aotearoa New Zealand’s rural hospitals
Jesse Whitehead
1 * , Katharina Blattner 1 2 , Rory Miller 1 3 , Sue Crengle 4 , Stephen Ram 5 , Xaviour Walker 6 7 , Garry Nixon 1 8
1 Department of General Practice and Rural Health, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
2 Rawene Hospital, Hauora Hokianga, Northland, New Zealand.
3 Thames Hospital, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand – Waikato, Hauraki, New Zealand.
4 (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) Ngai Tahu Maori Health Research Unit, Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
5 Tokoroa Hospital, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, Waikato District, Tokoroa, New Zealand.
6 Department of Medicine, Otago Medical School, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
7 Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
8 Dunstan Hospital, Central Otago Health Services, Clyde, New Zealand.
Journal of Primary Health Care 15(1) 14-23 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC22133
Published: 23 March 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Introduction: There is considerable variation in the structure and resources of New Zealand (NZ) rural hospitals; however, these have not been recently quantified and their effects on healthcare outcomes are poorly understood. Importantly, there is no standardised description of each rural hospital’s catchment boundary and the characteristics of the population living within this area.
Aim: To define and describe a catchment population for each of New Zealand’s rural hospitals.
Methods: An exploratory approach to developing catchments was employed. Geographic Information Systems were used to develop drive-time-based geographic catchments, and administrative health data (National Minimum Data Set and Primary Health Organisation Data Set) informed service utilisation-based catchments. Catchments were defined at both the Statistical Area 2 (SA2) and domicile levels, and linked to census-based population data, the Geographic Classification for Health, and the area-level New Zealand Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (NZDep2018).
Results: Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity in the size (max: 57 564, min: 5226) and characteristics of populations served by rural hospitals. Substantial differences in the age structure, ethnic composition, socio-economic profile, ‘remoteness’ and projected future populations, are noted.
Discussion: In providing a standardised description of each rural hospital’s catchment boundary and its population characteristics, the considerable heterogeneity of the communities served by rural hospitals, both in size, rurality and socio-demographic characteristics, is highlighted. The findings provide a platform on which to build further research regarding NZ’s rural hospitals and inform the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective and equitable health care for people living in rural NZ.
Keywords: catchment populations, Geographic classification for health, geography, health services, rural communities, rural health, rural health inequities, rural hospitals.
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