Pharmacy ARIA - PhARIA
The PhARIA project was undertaken by GISCA, the Department of Health and Ageing, and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. It was designed to provide a comprehensive, standardised measurement of the physical and professional remoteness of pharmacies throughout Australia, for use in the determination of rural and remote pharmacy allowances. As such, Pharmacy ARIA (PhARIA) provides a pharmacy specific measurement of remoteness for over 13,000 localities around Australia.
The concept of remoteness used in this analysis draws on previous work undertaken by the Department of Health and Ageing and GISCA, to create the Accessibility and Remoteness Index for Australia (ARIA), which quantified geographic remoteness based on the road distance people have to travel to reach a range of services.
The Pharmacy ARIA is a composite index, which incorporates measurements of general remoteness, as represented by ARIA, with a professional isolation component represented by the road distance to the five (5) closest pharmacies. The locations of more than 13,000 populated localities were used in the development of this index.
PhARIA values by populated localities (in alphabetical order) can be accessed from the table below.
| PhARIA values by populated localities |
|---|
| 2012/13 |
| 2011/12 |
| 2010/11 |
| 2009/10 |
| 2008/09 |
| 2007/08 |
The about PhARIA page provides more detailed information on how the index is calculated and links to other relevant websites.
As part of the development of this project, GISCA has created two map services. Each contains data for the current and most recent financial year. The first map service is password protected and provides data for the Department of Health and Ageing and the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare). The second map service provides information for pharmacists and is not password protected.
These map services are interactive, and allow users to zoom in and out, find localities of interest and view various map layers containing other information of interest, such as main roads, postcodes, and PhARIA categories. GISCA maintains these services and their data on an ongoing basis.
For further enquiries, contact Health Insurance Commission (Medicare), Phone 13 20 11, or email APMRC.
