IN THIS ISSUE

INTRODUCTION

The ABS Patient Experience Survey is conducted annually and collects national data on access and barriers to a range of health care services, including general practitioners, medical specialists and dental professionals, imaging and pathology tests, and hospital/emergency visits. Data is also collected on aspects of communication between patients and health professionals.

This publication presents summary results of the 2011-12 Patient Experience Survey which is the third in the series. Time series results comparing data from the 2009 and 2010-11 surveys to this cycle are available.

All persons aged 15 years and over were asked about their experiences with:

• general practitioners (GPs)
• medical specialists
• dental professionals
• admissions to hospital
• hospital emergency departments
• long term health conditions
• pathology tests
• imaging tests
• harm and harmful side-effects.

PUBLICATION TABLES

The tables and their corresponding relative standard errors are available in Excel spreadsheet form (Data Cubes), which can be found on the Downloads tab of the publication (cat. no. 4839.0).


ROUNDING

As estimates have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Published proportions are calculated prior to rounding the estimates and therefore some discrepancy may occur between these proportions and those that are calculated from the rounded estimates.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SURVEY INFORMATION

Information about the survey design and methodology, the quality and interpretation of results, and the range of publications and other data services available or planned is available in the Explanatory Notes. Unless otherwise specified, differences between data items highlighted in the Summary of Findings are statistically significant (refer to Technical Note).