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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-12 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS, CHILDREN'S HEALTH SERVICES

488 Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (4 December 2012). How many school-aged children living on the APY Lands, Yalata and Oak Valley in 2012 were—

(a) assessed as having Otitis Media;

(b) found to have one or more perforated eardrums; and

(c) received surgical treatment to address one or more perforated eardrums?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs): A response to this Question on Notice about children in the APY lands was provided on 10 September, 2013, however, Part (b) of this response requires correction.

On 10 September 2013 the house was advised:

A study conducted by Flinders University in 2010-11 An Evaluation of the benefits of swimming pools for the hearing and ear health of young Indigenous Australians. A whole of population study across multiple remote Indigenous Communities found that, over six visits, an average of 285 children (82 per cent) had no perforated ear drums, 40 children (11 per cent ) had one perforated ear drum, and 25 children (6.9 per cent) had two perforated ear drums.

I am now informed that this information, provided by SA Health, related only to 'wet' perforations and information about 'dry' perforations should also be considered to understand the frequency of ear drum perforation. A dry perforation is the presence of a perforation in the eardrum without any signs of discharge or fluid behind the eardrum. Some people also refer to this as inactive Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media.

I am informed by my department that the Flinders University study mentioned above found that over these six visits on average 82 per cent had no perforated wet ear drums, 11 per cent had one perforated wet ear drum, and 7 per cent had two perforated wet ear drums.

SA Health further advise that Professor Linnett Sanchez, one of the key authors of the above study, has confirmed that the combined wet and dry perforated ear drums in all Anangu communities which includes the APY land communities and Yalata and Oak Valley communities was found to be 36.1 per cent while many of the remaining 63.9 per cent of children had hearing which was not within normal limits due to middle ear infection (without perforation) or due to past history of infection.

SA Health is committed to improving the ear health of Aboriginal children. Closing the Gap funding has been used since 2011 to improve ear health services to remote Aboriginal communities, and to ensure improved access to ear, nose and throat medical specialists and audiologists. The service delivery model commenced with Country Health coordinating specialist visits, and since mid 2013, Nganampa Health Council has taken responsibility for coordinating visiting ear health specialist services with funding provided through Country Health.

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