CHILDREN'S VISITS TO GENERAL PRACTITIONERS FOR URGENT MEDICAL CARE
Across Australia, a quarter of all households with children under 15 had at least one child who had seen a GP for urgent medical care in the 12 months prior to the survey (25% or 579,900 households). Around 21% of these households had two or more children who had done so.
Proportions of households with children who had seen a GP for urgent medical care did not differ significantly across States and Territories, nor were they greatly affected by degrees of relative disadvantage or remoteness.
Nationally, 77% of households reported that their children had seen a GP within 4 hours of making an appointment for urgent medical care, 14% reported that their children had seen a GP after 4 hours but on the same day, and 9% reported that their children had been unable to see a GP for urgent medical care until the day after making an appointment or later.
Waiting times for children seeing a GP for urgent medical care were longer for households in outer regional/remote areas, with 65% of households reporting that their children were seen within 4 hours, compared with 77% of households in inner regional areas and 79% of households in major cities (see Figure 7.5).
7.5 Time between making appointment for child and child seeing GP for urgent medical care (a), by Remoteness
(See Table 7.1 for more detail)
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