EXPERIENCES WITH GP SERVICES

General practitioners (GPs) are many Australians’ first point of contact for health issues, and, as such, play a crucial role in delivering coordinated care across a person’s life¹. People use GP services for a variety of reasons including short-term illnesses, preventive health practices and management of long-term health conditions. It is therefore important that people are able to access a GP in a timely manner and receive quality care that meets their needs.

This chapter presents data on the experiences of persons aged 45 years and over who had at least one GP visit between November 2014 to November 2015 (the Study cohort) who saw a GP in 2015-16.

Of the 8.8 million people in the Study cohort, almost all (8.4 million people, or 96%) had at least one GP visit in 2015-16. On average, people in the Study cohort had 8.7 GP visits per person in 2015-16, with women having slightly more visits than men (9.2 and 8.1 visits respectively).

Across age groups the average number of GP visits differed significantly, with people aged 85 years and over having an average of 16.0 GP visits per person in 2015-16 compared with 6.3 GP visits per person aged 45-54 years.

FREQUENCY OF GP USE

The frequency of use of GP services amongst the 8.4 million people in the Study cohort who saw a GP in 2015-16 varied considerably:

• 6% saw a GP once
• 35% saw a GP 2 to 5 times
• 33% saw a GP 6 to 11 times
• 17% saw a GP 12 to 19 times
• 9% saw a GP 20 or more times.

WAITING TIMES

Study participants were asked whether they had waited longer than they felt was acceptable to get their most recent appointment with a GP. The proportion who reported they had waited longer than they felt was acceptable was relatively consistent irrespective of the number of GP visits they had in 2015-16, ranging between 15% (for people who had 6-11 GP visits) and 17% (for people who had one GP visit).

People who had greater numbers of GP visits were more likely to have accessed after hours GP care than people who had fewer GP visits (23% of people who had 20 or more GP visits accessed after hours GP care compared with 3% of people who had one GP visit).



BARRIERS

Access to services is an important contributor to good health. Timely access to GPs may decrease burden on other parts of the health system and potentially prevent hospitalisations².

Study participants were asked whether there was a time in the last 12 months when they felt they had needed to see a GP but did not go, and reasons why they did not go. Those who had more GP visits were more likely to have reported experiencing a time when they felt they needed to see a GP but did not go (29% of people who had 20 or more GP visits) compared with people who had fewer GP visits (19% of people who saw a GP once).



Of Study participants who indicated that there was a time in the last 12 months when they felt they had needed to see a GP but did not go, cost of appointment reported as a reason for not going differed considerably across frequency of use of GPs, with 31% of people who had seen a GP once indicating this was a reason they did not go to a GP, compared with 9% of people who had seen a GP 20 times or more.



EMOTIONAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH

The consideration and management of patients' emotional and psychological health is an important component of health care. Study participants were asked whether they had spoken with a GP about their emotional or psychological health in the last 12 months. Those who had greater numbers of GP visits were more likely to have spoken to a GP about their emotional and psychological health than people who had fewer GP visits (39% compared with 11% respectively).



REFERENCES

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Healthy Communities: coordination of health care – experiences with GP care among patients aged 45 and over, 2016. Cat. no. CHC 2. Canberra: AIHW.
2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, ‘Admitted patient care 2015–16: Australian hospital statistics’, viewed 20 November 2018, http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129559537