Welcome to the Riverina Division of General Practice
and Primary Health Ltd.
The Riverina Division of General Practice & Primary Health operates in south central NSW in the area referred to as the Riverina. As of July 1 2008 The Riverina Division of General Practice and the Barrier Division have agreed to amalgamate thereby grouping resources. The Division lies within the catchment areas of Greater Southern Area Health Service and Greater Western Area Health Service. The Riverina area is located west of Canberra, at the junction between three capital cities: Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. The Division includes the communities of Wagga Wagga, Adelong, Ardlethan, Ariah Park, Barmedman, Batlow, Broken Hill, Coolamon, Cootamundra, Ganmain, Gundagai, Henty, Ivanhoe, Junee, Lockhart, Menindee, Stockingbingal, Talbingo, Tarcutta, Temora, The Rock, Tibooburra,Tumbarumba, Tumut, West Wyalong , White Cliffs, Wilcannia and Ungarie. Click here to see a presentation on the Division.
There are 137,228 people living within the Division boundaries (2% of the NSW population), spread across the geographic area of 155,575.3 square kilometres, 1.1 person per square kilometre. Compared with a state figure of 8.8. The geographic area of the Division accounts for 19.2% of the state of NSW.
The overwhelming majority of the Division population reside in (as defined by the ABS) Inner Regional Centres - 66%, with over 31% residing in Outer Regional Centres and the remainder in Remote Rural Centres.
The aged distribution of this population reflects a youthful population (22.1% of the population are aged less than 14 years) and an ageing population (15.5% are aged 65+).
Across the Division there is an average ATSI population of 2.5%, which is slightly higher than state average of 2.1%. However, the ATSI population range across the 10 LGAs is from a low of .09% to a high of 4%.
There are 33 practices within the Division boundaries, one third of these (housing approximately half of the GP population) are located within Wagga Wagga with the remaining spread throughout the rural areas of the Division. The rural GPs within the Division work in practices where there is an average of 1.6 GPs per practice, whereas the Wagga Wagga GP population work from practices where there is an average of approximately 4 GPs per practice.
In addition, 11 (almost 30%) of the rural GP workforce are involved in procedural activities, compared to just 7% of the Wagga Wagga GP population.