National Health Performance Authority report says cost stops many from seeing a GP

    SUE DUNLEVY
    News Limited Network
    March 07, 2013


UP to one in seven patients avoid the doctor because of cost and up to 28 per cent say they have to wait to get an appointment.    

Where you live makes a huge difference to your access to a doctor and whether you can afford to see one, the first report into GP care by the new National Health Performance Authority shows.

The report has also identified the sickest regions in Australia as the Darling Downs in Queensland, Goulburn Valley in Victoria, and Tasmania. Nearly one in five adults in these places do not rate their health as good.

The healthiest regions in Australia have been identified as Sydney's North Shore and Beaches and Melbourne's Bayside, where 91 per cent of people rate their health as excellent, very good or good.

In Canberra, where few doctors bulk bill and it costs $75-$80 to see a GP, 15 per cent of patients can't afford a doctor and they are five times more likely than patients elsewhere in the country to avoid seeing a doctor because of cost.    

By contrast, in southwestern Melbourne, just 3 per cent of patients can't afford a doctor.

The New England area of NSW has the highest number of patients who had to wait to see a GP -28 per cent.

The lowest waits to see a GP were in Metro North Brisbane where just 8 per cent of patients said they waited too long.

More than half the patients in Southern NSW had trouble accessing their preferred GP when they needed to see a doctor while only 23 per cent of patients in southwestern Sydney had this problem.

Up to one in four people used a hospital emergency department for care that could have been provided by a GP.

The highest use of hospital emergency departments for GP care occurred in the Hunter region of NSW.

Western Sydney had the highest expenditure on GP attendances, $321 per person per year, while spending was lowest, $114 per person per year, in the Kimberley-Pilbara.

GP attendances were highest in southwestern Melbourne and lowest in Bayside.

Consumers Health Forum chief Carol Bennett said the report showed how unbalanced access to health care was around Australia.    

However, she said the report needed to be improved to show how long people were waiting to see a GP and how much they were paying.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/cost-of-living/national-health-performance-authority-report-says-cost-stops-many-from-seeing-a-gp/story-fnagkbpv-1226591890747#ixzz2MnB7Jtoj