GENERAL PRACTITIONERS


General practitioners (GPs) are widely used in Australia and are the first point of contact for health issues for many Australians. People access GPs 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 care that meets their needs, both in terms of ease of access and the quality of care provided. This chapter presents data on people who saw a GP in the previous 12 months. Respondents were asked about the services they had used, waiting times, barriers to accessing care as well as their experience with the GP.

Most people aged 15 years and over accessed a GP during the previous year. The graph below shows that GPs were the most common health service accessed in 2014-15, with eight out of ten people (83%) seeing a GP at least once in the previous 12 months. Dental professionals were the second most common health service accessed (49%), followed by medical specialists (38%). These patterns have remained steady across the six cycles of the survey (2009 to 2014-15). See Tables 1 and 2.2 in Downloads.



The proportion of people who saw a GP in the previous 12 months has remained relatively stable over the last six years. In 2014-15, as in previous years, a higher proportion of females than males saw a GP in the previous 12 months (88% compared with 78%). The proportion of people who saw a GP generally increased with age. Seven in ten people (74%) aged 15-24 saw a GP compared with over nine in ten people (96%) aged 65 and over. See Table 2.2 in Downloads.

Visits to GPs were also related to health characteristics, with people who rated their health as fair or poor being more likely to see a GP than those who rated their health as good, very good or excellent (96% compared with 81%). Further to this, people with a long term health condition were more likely to see a GP (94%) than those without a long term health condition (72%). See Table 3.2 in Downloads.

WAITING TIMES

Difficulties in obtaining appointments for GPs can be both frustrating and have a detrimental effect on a person's overall health. The proportion of people waiting longer than they felt acceptable for a GP appointment has decreased in the last year from 23% in 2013-14 to 21% in 2014-15. Females were more likely than males to report waiting longer than they felt acceptable (23% compared with 18%). (See Tables 4 and 5.2 in Downloads). Feeling that waiting times were longer than acceptable was also related to age, with people aged 15-64 more likely to report a longer than acceptable wait compared with those aged 65 and over (23% compared with 13%).

In particular, a lower proportion of people in outer regional, remote and very remote areas reported waiting longer than they felt acceptable for a GP appointment in 2014-15, decreasing from 29% in 2013-14 to 23% in 2014-15. However, people living in outer regional, remote or very remote areas were more likely to wait longer than they felt acceptable to get an appointment with a GP than those living in major cities (23% compared with 20%). See Table 6.2 in Downloads.



More than one in 10 people (12%) saw a GP for urgent medical care. Of those who saw a GP for urgent medical care, nearly two in three (64%) were seen by a GP within four hours of making an appointment, around one in ten (11%) waited four hours or more but were seen within 24 hours of making an appointment, and one in four (25%) waited 24 hours or more. People living in major cities were more likely to be seen within 4 hours than those living in inner regional areas (67% compared with 56%). See Tables 5.2 and 6.2 in Downloads.

BARRIERS

A benefit of the Patient Experience Survey is that data can be collected from those who did not access health services as well as from those who did. It is therefore possible to obtain information from people who may have needed to access a health service but did not, including the reasons they did not access the health service.

In 2014-15, of those who needed to see a GP in the previous 12 months, one in twenty (5%) delayed seeing or did not see a GP at least once because of the cost. People living in outer regional, remote or very remote areas of Australia were more likely to delay seeing or not see a GP due to cost than those living in major cities (6% compared with 5%). See Tables 4 and 6.2 in Downloads.

AFTER HOURS GP CARE

After hours GPs provide flexibility and convenience in accessing health care when required. This may alleviate pressure on the wider health system, as people with non-life threatening illnesses or injuries are able to visit an after hours GP instead of visiting an Emergency Department.

In 2014-15, one in twelve people saw an after hours GP in the previous 12 months (9%). This rate was similar in 2013-14. As with other health services, more females than males saw an after hours GP (10% compared with 7%). See Table 2.2 in Downloads.

People with a long term health condition were more likely to see an after hours GP than those without (11% compared with 7%). Similarly, those who rated their health as fair or poor were more likely to see an after hours GP than those who rated their health as excellent, very good or good (11% compared with 8%). See Table 3.2 in Downloads.

People living in major cities were more likely to see an after hours GP than those living in outer regional, remote or very remote areas of Australia (10% compared with 6%). See Table 3.2 in Downloads.

Just over one in five people (22%) who needed to see an after hours GP did not see one at all. (See Table 7 in Downloads). When asked the main reason why they did not go, just under a third reported that the service was not available when required (32%), 12% reported that the waiting time was too long and a further 11% reported cost.

Of those who saw an after hours GP, the type of clinic most visited was a regular general practice clinic (40%), followed by a late night clinic (25%). See Table 8.2 in Downloads.

EXPERIENCE WITH GPs

The way that a patient is treated by a health professional is an important aspect of their satisfaction with their care. All respondents who had seen a GP were asked for their perceptions on how they were treated by the GPs they had seen.

Of those who had seen a GP in the previous 12 months, 72% reported that the GP always listened carefully to them, 78% reported that they always showed them respect and 72% reported that they always spent enough time with them. Similar patterns were reported by male and female patients. (See Table 5.2 in Downloads). These rates were similar in 2013-14.