Does Healthcare Deliver? Results from the Patient‑Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS): Australia
Table of contents
The OECD Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS) is a groundbreaking initiative that fills a critical gap in health data by measuring the health outcomes and care experiences of people. This is an essential piece of information still lacking: the views of those directly concerned by health services – the patients – about their experience with the healthcare system and the outcomes as reported by them. By capturing the perspectives of over 107 000 people across 1 800 primary care practices in 19 countries, PaRIS provides an internationally comparable assessment of how outcomes and experiences of primary care users aged 45 years and older vary across countries and how healthcare systems deliver the care people with chronic conditions need.
As the global population of people living with chronic conditions continues to grow, the need for healthcare systems to adapt to their needs has never been more urgent. PaRIS plays a crucial role in informing this shift by offering data that supports the reorganisation of healthcare around the care experiences and health outcomes that matter most to people. Unlike disease‑specific assessments, PaRIS takes a broader approach, measuring how healthcare impacts people’s lives across various dimensions. This comprehensive perspective has the potential to revolutionise the way we assess the performance of healthcare systems on a global scale.
PaRIS findings emphasise the need for more people‑centred and co‑ordinated care, especially for the 80% of primary care users aged 45 years and older that live with at least one chronic condition and the 50% that live with multiple (two or more) chronic conditions. Targeted policies are essential to address inequalities, enhance care co‑ordination, and build trust in healthcare systems. Encouraging patient involvement in care decisions and fostering strong relationships with healthcare professionals can lead to better health outcomes, greater trust in the system, and increased confidence in managing their own health. At the same time, a well-staffed healthcare workforce and primary care practices organised around people’s needs are key to achieving improved patient outcomes and experiences.
This country note leverages the main findings of the publication, Does Healthcare Deliver: Results from the Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS), to provide a focused assessment of Australia. Drawing on the analysis of the ten key patient-reported outcome and experience measures used in the survey (Table 1), it explores findings in the Australian context and compares them to the OECD PaRIS average. The OECD PaRIS average is the simple average of the 17 OECD member countries participating in PaRIS.
In Australia, 74% of people with chronic conditions report good physical health, above the OECD PaRIS average of 70%, while 81% report good mental health, aligning with the OECD PaRIS average.
More than half of people (61%) with chronic conditions in Australia are confident that they can manage their own health, similar to the OECD PaRIS average of 59%. However, this is over 30 percentage points lower than the highest performing country, where up to 92% report confidence.
More than nine out of ten (93%) people with chronic conditions in Australia report good person-centred care and quality of care, this is significantly above the OECD PaRIS average and one of the top-performing countries in these areas.
Less than a quarter of the people (24%) with two or more chronic conditions are managed in primary care practices that offer follow-up and regular consultations of more than 15 minutes in Australia; this is more than 20 percentage points lower compared to the OECD PaRIS average of 47%. In contrast, Australia demonstrates higher levels of digital health literacy than the OECD PaRIS average, with 31% of people with chronic conditions confident in using health information from the internet to make health decisions.
Nearly two‑thirds of people (64%) living with chronic conditions trust their healthcare system, this puts Australia slightly above the OECD PaRIS average (62%).
In Australia people with chronic conditions have better experiences of healthcare, compared to other PaRIS countries. However, health outcomes are around the OECD PaRIS average (Chapter 2). This assessment is based on the 10 key patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) – physical health, mental health, social functioning, well-being and general health and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) – confidence to self-manage, experienced co‑ordination of care, experienced person-centred care, experienced quality of care and trust in healthcare system (Figure 1).
In Australia, people living with chronic conditions have generally similar health outcomes to those in other PaRIS countries (Figure 1):
Three out of four people (74%) with chronic conditions in Australia report good physical health, referring to physical function, pain and fatigue. This is above the OECD PaRIS average of 70%. Australia is one of the higher performing countries in physical health, with a difference of 22 percentage points with the lowest performance.
Four out of five people (81%) with chronic conditions report good mental health, and a similar percentage of people (80%) report positive social functioning, which refers to the extent to which a person can carry out their usual social activities and roles. While mental health and social functioning of people with chronic conditions in Australia are comparable to the OECD PaRIS average, there is a 12 and 13 percentage point difference between Australia and the highest performing country in both indicators, respectively.
While seven out of ten (70%) people with chronic conditions in Australia report good well-being – a measure of how positive a person feels in terms of mood, vitality, and fulfilment -, the share of people with chronic conditions reporting good well-being goes as high as 80% for OECD PaRIS countries.
About three out of four people (74%) with chronic conditions in Australia reports good general health, which is above the OECD PaRIS average of 66%. Yet, there is still about a 20 percentage point difference between Australia and the highest performing country.
In Australia, people living with chronic conditions are more likely to have good experiences of quality of care, person-centred care, and co‑ordination of care – this places Australia as one of the best performers in the PaRIS survey results.
More than half of people with chronic conditions (61%) in Australia are confident that they can manage their own health and well-being. This is similar to the OECD PaRIS average (59%). In the highest performing country, up to 92% of the population feels confident to manage their own health, which is more than 30 percentage points higher than Australia.
Three out of four people with chronic conditions (74%) in Australia experience good care co‑ordination (cross-country range: 22‑81), well above the OECD PaRIS average of 59%.
More than nine out of ten people with chronic conditions (93%) in Australia experience good person-centred care, which is care organised around the needs of the patients, and good quality of care. Australia stands as one of the highest performing countries on person-centred care and experienced quality of care.
Nearly two‑thirds of people living with chronic conditions (64%) trust their healthcare system, this puts Australia slightly above the OECD PaRIS average (62%).
Source: See Chapter 2 for more details.
People living with multiple chronic conditions report lower levels of physical and mental health, well-being and social functioning compared to those who live with one chronic condition (Chapter 3). This pattern is consistent with the OECD PaRIS average, although Australia’s scores, for example on physical health and mental health, are better than the OECD PaRIS average, and above what is considered as a cutoff for good-fair health. Specifically:
In Australia, people with three or more chronic conditions are less likely to report better health compared to those with two chronic conditions. This pattern, consistent with other countries’ results, underscores the compounded health burdens experienced by people with multiple chronic conditions, emphasising the escalating toll that each additional chronic condition takes on their health and well-being.
People living with several chronic conditions in Australia have poorer physical health compared to those living with only one chronic condition with an eight‑point difference, a pattern consistent with the OECD PaRIS average. However, the physical health scores for people with one, two, or three or more chronic conditions in Australia are slightly higher than the OECD PaRIS average (Figure 2). For example, while the average physical health score of people with three or more chronic conditions is above the good-fair cutoff point (42) in Australia, the OECD PaRIS average goes below the cutoff.
Similarly, Australia performs better than the OECD PaRIS average regarding the mental health of people living with one, two, and three or more chronic conditions. People with three or more chronic conditions in Australia report poorer mental health than those with one chronic condition with a six‑point difference, yet it remains above the OECD PaRIS average (Figure 3).
As in other countries, in Australia people with multiple chronic conditions less often report good social functioning than people with one chronic condition (Figure 4). While 90% of people with one chronic condition in Australia have good social functioning, this goes down to 70% of people with three or more chronic conditions, which is below the OECD PaRIS average.
Primary care consultation features associated with higher levels of experienced quality care are related to time, both time‑scheduled for regular, follow-up consultations, and length of relationship with the same primary care professional (Chapter 3). The role of staff other than physicians supporting the management of people with chronic conditions also plays a role in improving healthcare delivery for people with multiple chronic conditions (Chapter 3). Systematic medication reviews for people with multiple chronic conditions can enhance medication safety and efficacy while also increasing experienced care co‑ordination.
Australia performs generally well in primary care features, except for scheduled time for consultation (Figure 5):
Less than a quarter of the people (24%) with two or more chronic conditions in Australia are managed in primary care practices that offer follow-up and regular consultations of more than 15 minutes; this is more than 20 percentage points lower compared to the OECD PaRIS average of 47%.
In Australia, all people with two or more chronic conditions are managed in primary care practices where non-physician staff are involved in chronic disease management; this is 17 percentage points higher than the OECD PaRIS average of 83%.
More than four out of five people (86%) with three or more chronic conditions in Australia report that their medication was reviewed by a healthcare professional over the past 12 months; this is about 10 percentage points higher than the OECD PaRIS average of 75%.
More than half of the people with two or more chronic conditions (52%) in Australia report being with the same primary care professional for more than five years; this is less than 8 percentage points below the OECD PaRIS average.
People‑centred care, healthcare systems addressing the needs of people, is an essential indicator of the quality and performance of healthcare systems and individual care providers (Chapter 4). PaRIS data show that a people‑centred approach that prioritises strong patient engagement and effective care co‑ordination, is associated with enhanced health outcomes and patient experiences. This approach is particularly beneficial in managing chronic conditions, as it empowers patients to actively participate in decisions about their health.
On several indicators of people‑centred care, Australia performs better than the OECD PaRIS average (Figure 6):
Three‑quarters of patients with chronic conditions (73%) in Australia receive support to manage their own health, compared to the OECD PaRIS average of 63%. Conversely, the percentage of people having confidence to self-manage their health in Australia (61%) is comparable to the OECD PaRIS average (59%).
Australia demonstrates higher levels of digital health literacy, with 31% of people with chronic conditions reporting confidence in using health information from the internet to make health decisions, compared to 19% across OECD PaRIS countries (range of 5‑34%).
Almost all (99%) people with chronic conditions in Australia are managed in primary care practices that exchange medical records electronically, compared to the OECD PaRIS average of 57%.
Almost all (99%) people with chronic conditions in Australia are managed in primary care practices that report being well-prepared to co‑ordinate care for their patients, which is almost twice as high compared to the OECD PaRIS average (56%).
These results reflect Australia’s strong commitment to improving digital health in primary care services and empowering people with chronic conditions to manage their health effectively.
There are differences in well-being and trust in the healthcare system across genders in Australia, both indicators being lower for women.
In line with the pattern in other countries, among people with chronic conditions, men reported higher well-being than women in Australia (Figure 7). The gender gap in Australia (4 points) is comparable to the OECD PaRIS average (5 points).
Among people with chronic conditions, 67% of men in Australia have trust in the healthcare system, yet only 58% of women have trust in healthcare system (Figure 8). These results for trust are closely aligned to the OECD PaRIS average for men (67%) and women (58%).
The gender gap in trust in Australia (9 percentage point difference) is comparable to the OECD PaRIS average gap (9 percentage point difference).
Similar to other OECD countries, people with chronic conditions and higher incomes report higher well-being and trust in the healthcare system compared to those with lower incomes:
Across OECD PaRIS countries, people with chronic conditions and higher incomes report about 7 points higher well-being than those with lower income. Australia levels are around the OECD PaRIS average (Figure 9).
In Australia, among people living with chronic conditions, seven out of ten people (70%) with higher income trust the healthcare system, compared to 61% of people with lower income. The trust levels in the healthcare system across income groups are similar to the OECD PaRIS average for high (70%) and low (59%) income groups (Figure 10).
The gap in trust between high- and low-income groups in Australia is comparable to the 11% OECD PaRIS average and is not statistically significant.
PaRIS at a glance
PaRIS contains information on patient-reported outcome and experience measures as well as health behaviours and capabilities, sociodemographic characteristics from patients. In addition, PaRIS collects primary care practice characteristics information from primary care practices. The data collection took place in 2023‑24 and first results were released in the publication, Does Healthcare Deliver: Results from the Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS).
Results span 107 011 primary care users (aged 45 years and older) and 1 816 primary care practices in 19 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United States and Wales (United Kingdom). All results in this country note are age-sex standardised to adjust for the different demographic profiles of the countries. In Figure 1, highest (lowest) represents the highest (lowest) values found for each indicator among 17 PaRIS countries. In Italy and the United States, eligibility criteria for patient participation differed from the guidelines, therefore, these countries are not included in this figure. For detailed information on national sampling procedures and other methodological details, see Chapter 7 of the report.
Results for Australia are based on 2 392 patients and 56 primary care practices. In Australia patients were sampled by simple random selection from medical record systems of participating practices. All primary care practices were invited to participate in the survey.
In Australia, primary care practices responded to the questionnaire online. Patients responded to the questionnaire online and via paper-and-pencil surveys.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The full book is available in English: OECD (2025), Does Healthcare Deliver?: Results from the Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS), OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c8af05a5-en.
© OECD 2025
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