How to use the My community page
The My community page allows you to see how your local area is performing, or to look at the performance of another area of interest to you.
This page will show you the full range of measures available for the Primary Health Network (PHN) area or Medicare Local catchment selected. You can select a PHN or Medicare Local by using the search feature, or by accessing the Directory link in the footer, for a full list of the local areas across Australia.
What is a Primary Health Network?
The Australian Government announced in the 2014–15 Budget that Primary Health Networks (PHNs) would replace Medicare Locals from mid-2015. PHNs are responsible for connecting health services across local communities so that patients, particularly those needing coordinated care, have access to a range of health care providers, including practitioners, community health services and hospitals. PHNs will work directly with GPs, other primary care providers, secondary care providers and hospitals.
What is a Medicare Local?
Starting in mid-2011 and ending in mid-2015 Medicare Locals were responsible for planning and funding primary health services in communities across Australia. They helped to ensure patients could access the care they needed, particularly when a variety of health workers were involved in providing treatments.
Help topics described on this page:
This website attempts to detect your approximate location to determine which Primary Health Network (PHN) area you are currently situated within. Setting your PHN allows us to highlight your community in the results. You can set or change your community at any time by using the change link in the location setter, just below the navigation bar.
Exploring the results
Map view
The map shows the boundaries relevant to the geographic area you are viewing. When viewing a Primary Health Network area the map will show the boundary for the area you are currently viewing. This can be helpful to see what local areas are included in each PHN area, as they do not necessarily follow suburb or city borders. When viewing a Medicare Local catchment the map will show the Medicare Local boundary.
The map allows you to pan and zoom into areas of interest. Use the controls on the left of the map to navigate.
Tip: Press + on your keyboard to zoom in on the centre of the map. Press - to zoom out.
Chart view
All the measures available for the PHN area or Medicare Local catchment you are viewing are displayed on this page, grouped by category. Look through the list for measures of interest and select the heading to reveal the relevant data. You can use the drop-down menus in the results table to explore the data, view other data periods or view another local geography, such as Local areas (SA3).
You can also use the ‘Add to MyReport’ button to add the measures to your own customised report ready for export. More information about generating a customised MyReport.
Tip: Anywhere on the site you see the 
right arrow icon indicates more information – select the icon to see more.
Each measure is displayed as a chart allowing you to compare the performance of your local health area with other comparable areas across Australia.
The charts shown will vary, depending on the information displayed. The top of the chart will describe the measure, geography and the data period displayed. Where applicable, these results will be grouped by peer group.
For some measures, more than one data period is available. Select a data period from the drop-down menu above the chart to see available results for other data periods.
Tip: To find out more about the data available, or how the values were collected and calculated, select the ‘About the data’ icon below each chart.
Footnote symbols will be displayed on the chart where relevant. Hover over the symbol to see the footnote text, or scroll to the bottom of the chart to see all footnotes relevant to the chart.
Changing geographies
For selected measures, data are also reported at smaller geographies, such as Local areas (SA3). If data are available at smaller geographies for the measure you have selected, a drop-down menu will be visible above the chart. This allows you to select another local geography. Your results will appear in the chart.
Changing data periods
For selected measures, previous data periods are available to view. You can use the drop-down menu above the chart to change the data period. Depending on the data period selected, your reporting unit may change.
