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Background This paper aims to assess the barriers and solutions to the delivery of eye care in primary care settings and solutions to improve the use of comprehensive eye care among Indigenous Australians. Design, setting, participants Qualitative, mixed method study participants include Aboriginal community members, and health and eye care providers in urban, rural and remote settings. Main outcome measures Present evidence for health care providers to better understand and address some of the barriers that limit access to eye care in primary care settings. Results Patient perspectives on barriers to accessing eye care and reasons they choose to seek care or not are presented. Health system barriers identified by health and eye care providers are also presented. Additionally, key enablers for improving access to eye care through primary care services are identified. Conclusion Primary health care services have an important role in Indigenous eye health. There is a critical role for primary care in the coordination of the patient journey and cooperating with other services to improve access to comprehensive eye care. Through improved provision of primary eye care, monitoring of Indigenous eye health indicators and supporting patients to access eye care, it is possible to close the gap for vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We investigated patient perceptions of a virtual preoperative anaesthesia evaluation clinic linking Royal Darwin Hospital to Katherine Hospital. Design Descriptive study, cross-sectional survey. Setting Regional and rural areas of Northern Territory, Australia. Participants Sample includes 27 respondents, five Indigenous, 18 non- Indigenous and four unknown. Interventions Introduction of a preoperative anaesthesia evaluation clinic. Main outcome measures We designed a 10-item, 5-point Likert scale questionnaire assessing patient perceptions in four domains: (i) technical quality; (ii) perceived efficacy; (iii) affective patient experience; and (iv) patient preference. Qualitative responses are also reported. Results Twenty-seven out of 35 patients (77%) completed the questionnaire. Ninety-eight per cent were in positive agreement on technical quality with a mean score of 1.35 ( SD: 0.53); Ninety-five per cent on perceived efficacy, 1.35 ( SD: 0.65); Eighty-four per cent in negative agreement on affective patient experience (negative perception item), 4.19 ( SD: 1.07); Eighty-one per cent in negative agreement on patient preference (negative perception item), 4.23 ( SD: 1.14). There were no significant differences in the answers between Indigenous (five patients) and non- Indigenous patients (18 patients). Conclusion Our study confirms the acceptability of telemedicine in the remote assessment of preoperative patients in the Northern Territory, with positive perceptions in all four domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]