Health in Hunter New England	e-Resource home page Table of contents Chapter Introduction On this page: Commentary Print version
	Hunter New England Clusters

In this section

Introduction

Demography

• Hunter New England population by cluster
• 2005 estimated total residential population by cluster, sex and age group (table)
• 2005 estimated total residential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population by cluster (table)
• 2005 estimated total residential non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population by cluster (table)
• 2001 population distribution by Indigenous status and cluster (graph)


• 2005 Estimated total residential population and projected population in 2025 by sex and age groups (numbers)
• Greater Newcastle
• Lower Hunter
• Lower Mid North Coast
• McIntyre
• Mehi
• Peel
• Tablelands
• Upper Hunter


• 2005 Estimated total residential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and projected population for 2009 by age and sex (numbers)
• Greater Newcastle
• Lower Hunter
• Lower Mid North Coast
• McIntyre
• Mehi
• Peel
• Tablelands
• Upper Hunter


• 2005 Estimated total residential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population distribution by Indigenous status, age and sex (percentage)
• Greater Newcastle
• Lower Hunter
• Lower Mid North Coast
• McIntyre
• Mehi
• Peel
• Tablelands
• Upper Hunter

Mortality

• Deaths from all causes by cluster and sex
  
• Perinatal mortality (see tables)
  
• Perinatal mortality - Indigenous population (see tables)
  
• Perinatal mortality - non-Indigenous population (see tables)
  
• Coronary heart disease deaths by sex
  
• Stroke deaths by sex
  
• Injury and poisoning childbood deaths by cluster
  
• Injury and poisoning deaths by sex
  
• Chronic obstructive airways disease deaths by sex,
  

Cancer Incidence and Mortality

• All cancers - new cases by sex (see table for deaths)
• Breast cancer - new cases and deaths (see table for deaths)
• Cervical cancer - new cases and deaths (see table for deaths)
• Colorectal cancer - new cases by sex (see table for deaths)
• Colorectal cancer incidence and death rates
• Lung cancer - new cases by sex (see table for deaths)
• Lung cancer - incidence and death rates
• Melanoma - new cases by sex (see table for deaths)
• Melanoma -incidence and death rates
• Prostate cancer, new cases (see table for deaths)

Pregnancy and the newborn

• Hunter New England Mothers
• Crude birth rate and total fertility rate
• Prematurity and low birth weight - (percentage)
• Prematurity and low birth weight trend- (numbers in table)
• Teenage pregnancy rate
• Teenage pregnancy trend - (numbers in table)
• Maternal smoking rate
• Maternal smoking trend - (numbers in table)


• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mothers
• Prematurity and low birth weight trend - (numbers in table)
• Teenage pregnancy trend - (numbers in table)
• Maternal smoking trend - (numbers in table)
• Aboriginal births


• Non-Aboriginal Mothers
• Prematurity and low birth weight trend - (numbers in table)
• Teenage pregnancy trend - (numbers in table)
• Maternal smoking trend - (numbers in table)

Injury and poisoning

• Hospitalisations for injury and poisoning, persons all ages
• Childhood Hospitalisations
• Fall related injury hospitalisations in older people (by sex in table)

Communicable diseases

• Immunisation rates
• Measles: notifications
• Pertissus: notifications
• Rubella: notifications
• Pneumococcal disease : notifications
• Q Fever : notifications
• Gonorrhoea: notifications
• Syphilis: notifications
• Chlamydia: notifications
• Hepatitis A: notifications
• Hepatitis B: notifications
• Hepatitis C: notifications
• Salmonella: notifications
• Meningococcal disease: notifications
• Leptospirosis: notifications
• Psittacosis: notifications
• Cryptosporidiosis : notifications
• Tuberculosis : notifications

Respiratory diseases

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalisations
• Asthma hospitalisations
• Respiratory disease hospitalisations

Social determinants

• Socio economic indexes (SEIFA)

The environment

• Arboviral disease notifications by species

Introduction

Hunter New England Health provides care for approximately 840,000 people living across 130,000 square kilometres: an area that spans 25 local council areas.

To effectively manage its vast and complex network of health services, Hunter New England Health has established a head office in Newcastle and a regional office in Tamworth. For administrative purposes, it has also divided the geographic area into 8 clusters and 4 acute hospital networks. The eight clusters are Mehi, McIntyre , Tablelands , Peel , Upper Hunter , Lower Mid North Coast , Lower Hunter , Greater Newcastle.

Each cluster has its own unique characteristics, which helped determine its boundaries. Hunter New England Health map

It is important to note that the clusters are for management and administration purposes and will not affect clinical referral patterns and natural patient flows. For example, people living in Boggabri (Mehi Cluster) who are accustomed to seeking hospital care in Gunnedah (Peel Cluster) will continue to do so.

Mehi Cluster- Covering the Local Councils of Moree Plains and Narrabri
This cluster covers a large geographic area characterised by small widely- dispersed communities, a high Aboriginal population and extremes of wealth and poverty within the same local areas. The development of this cluster allows for equitable resource allocation between two communities who have historically had to compete for resources (Narrabri and Moree). Locating Boggabri, Narrabri, Moree and Wee Waa in the same cluster supports a more integrated approach to supporting Aboriginal health in the far north-western part of Hunter New England Health.

McIntyre Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Inverell and Gwydir
This cluster is characterised by small rural communities viewing Inverell as their major service town. Bingara and Warialda have several communities of interest but relate more to Inverell for health and welfare services than other towns, such as Moree or Tamworth.

Tingha is a town with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and a high Aboriginal population. As the MPS is developed at Tingha it is important that strong existing links with Inverell for health service and aged care delivery are supported.

Tablelands Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Tenterfield, Glen Innes Severn, Guyra, Armidale Dumaresq and Uralla
This cluster supports existing strong links between Glen Innes, Tenterfield and Emmaville, with many health and welfare services shared across these three communities.

Armidale is the largest community of interest for all towns in this cluster other than Tenterfield, whose communities of interest tend to be Stanthorpe in Queensland and Lismore in North Coast. Linking these communities within the one cluster supports and strengthens the existing role of Armidale Community Health Centre as a provider of specialist primary and community health services to the smaller northern communities.

Peel Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Tamworth, Walcha, and Gunnedah
Communities in this cluster relate either to Tamworth as the largest regional centre or to Gunnedah. The Walcha community relates to both Tamworth and Armidale for different services, with social and welfare services generally being provided from Tamworth. Manilla and Barraba have strong links to Tamworth, strengthened by the recent Shire amalgamations.

Upper Hunter Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Liverpool Plains, Upper Hunter and Muswellbrook
This cluster includes within it health services from the former Hunter and the New England Area Health Services and supports the development of a strongly integrated identity for Hunter New England Health by removing old demarcation lines. Murrurundi already supports Quirindi with a visiting GP service and early links with Muswellbrook for access to specialist community-based services has occurred. There is already a strong relationship to Muswellbrook for Murrurundi, Scone, Denman and Merriwa.

Lower Hunter Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Dungog, Singleton, Maitland and Cessnock
As the population within clusters increases, geographic size decreases. The communities in the Lower Hunter Cluster are close together geographically and form a funnel into the Greater Newcastle area via the New England Highway and feeder roads. Despite the proximity to Newcastle there is still a rural component to the communities in this cluster and they differentiate themselves from the Greater Newcastle area. Within the cluster, Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Cessnock all relate to each other, with smaller communities coming into these larger towns. There are existing strong links between these communities for health and welfare service delivery.

Lower Mid-North Coast Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Greater Taree, Great Lakes and Gloucester This coastal cluster is characterised by a coastal population with some less populated smaller rural communities to the west. Taree as a major regional centre is the community of interest for the surrounding smaller communities.

Greater Newcastle Cluster - Covering the Local Councils of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens
This cluster comprises the metropolitan component of Hunter New England Health, with communities within the cluster strongly connected through existing health and welfare systems. By maintaining a metropolitan cluster, including feeder suburbs, the Area Health Service can plan service delivery models that suit metropolitan characteristics without imposing these on rural clusters.

---

Print version:	Although this page can be printed directly from your Web browser, a higher quality version of this entire page (graph, table and text) is available as an Acrobat PDF file which can be printed or viewed on screen using free software.
Rider:	The information presented in this resource result from analyses of a variety of social and health focused datasets. These datasets originate from a variety of sources including Hunter New England Health, the NSW Department of Health, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The timing of the release of these data to third parties is controlled by the owner of these data. It is therefore possible for these organisations to publish data that they have not yet made available to Hunter New England Population Health for analysis and release. Users should therefore check the publications of these organisations as it is possible that they may have published even more up to date information on Hunter New England than those available in this resource. As this resource is an ongoing project, the indicators presented will be updated as soon as possible after the release of all datasets to Hunter New England Population Health.
Copyright notice:	This work is copyright ©. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study training purposes subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source. It may not be reproduced for commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for purposes other than those indicated above requires written permission from Hunter New England Health. © NSW Department of Health and Hunter New England Health 2007.
Suggested citation:	Hunter New England Population Health, Health in Hunter New England e-Resource, Hunter New England Area Health Service, 2007. Available at: http://www.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au/HNEPH/HHNE/dem2/dem2_intro.htm - Accessed (insert date of access).
Contributors:	Assistance from NSW Department of Health: This resource is modified from work undertaken for the production of the electronic and hard copy versions of the report Health of the people of NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer, (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/) by the Centre for Epidemiology and Research of the NSW Department of Health. This work includes research and definition of indicators, programming framework, statistical programs, text and programming infrastructure for web publishing. Hunter New England Population Health has produced a local version of the report reflecting local concerns, where appropriate, and ensuring that only minimal changes were made in other parts of the text and presentation in the interest of consistency at a state level.
Produced by:	Hunter New England Population Health, Hunter New England Health, with assistance from Centre for Epidemiology and Research, NSW Health and modified from the electronic report Health of the people of NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer, (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/)
Last updated:	19 December 2007
See NSW Data:	To view state data, relating to this indicator go to the report Health of the people of NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer. (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/) or intranet version

Top of page

Table of contents

---