Guest Editorial: Indicators and Public Health Policy

Abstract

This issue includes a paper from the Victorian Department of Human Services, Australia, addressing applications of data on ambulatory care sensitive condition hospitalisations. This work has been very important for Victoria as it provides robust new indicators of access and quality of primary care services that have direct application to current public health policy. On the surface, this work appears to be the result of a simple set of analyses of routine hospitalisations data; commonplace data that are usually presented in bureaucratic reports that have a life gathering dust on the desks of public sector health administrators. How could such data excite anybody or provoke a practical policy or strategic response?