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National public poll: Experience with GPs

Public Report April 2010

General practice

Question: Do you have a regular GP? That is a usual family doctor you see for your health needs?

 
 
TOTAL
Yes
88%
No
12%
 

Comments:

  • People aged 55 years and over were more likely than those aged 18 -24 to have a regular GP (96% v 79%).  
  • Females were more likely than males to have a regular GP (91% v 85%). 

Question: If no, please state what best describes what you do when you or someone in your family are sick?

 
TOTAL
Attend a local clinic and see any available doctor
57%
Go wherever you can to get an appointment
24%
Go to the chemist
13%
Attend the local emergency department at hospital
6%
 

Question: How often would you say you visit a general practitioner?

 
TOTAL
Less than once a year
7%
About once a year
16%
2 or 3 times a year
40%
Every couple of months
29%
More often
9%
 

Comments:

  • Frequency of visits to a GP increased with age - people aged 18 – 24 were more likely to visit a GP about once a year (30%), those aged 35 – 44 were more likely to see a GP 2 or 3 times per year (44%) and those aged 55 years and over were more likely to visit a GP every couple of months (39%). 
  • Males were more likely to visit a GP about once a year (19%), while females were more likely to visit a GP every couple of months (32%). 

Satisfaction with medical care received

Question: When you visit a GP how satisfied are you with the medical care you receive?

 
 
TOTAL
Total satisfied
83%
Total dissatisfied
4%
Very satisfied
39%
Satisfied
44%
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
13%
Dissatisfied
3%
Very dissatisfied
1%
 
Comments:
  • Satisfaction was higher amongst those that have a regular GP than those that do not have a regular GP (44% very satisfied v 5% very satisfied).

Question: Thinking back on the last time you visited a doctor, what describes what happened in that visit? (Choose all that apply)

 
 
TOTAL
I went about one particular health issue
62%
I raised a range of different health issues
30%
I talked to the doctor about a matter relating to a family member
8%
I discussed general issues related to stress or depression
6%
Other
6%
 

Question: Rate the importance of the following to you about your usual medical practice?

 
Total important
Very Important
Somewhat Important
Not
Important
No Opinion
Getting enough time with the doctor
96%
66%
30%
2%
1%
Being able to get an appointment at a time that suits me
95%
55%
40%
4%
1%
Having a long term relationship with one doctor so they can know my medical history
94%
65%
29%
4%
1%
Having two or three doctors I like and trust
76%
26%
50%
21%
3%
Having a nurse at the practice to support the doctors
71%
26%
45%
25%
4%
Just being able to turn up without an appointment
59%
16%
43%
36%
5%
Having a female doctor available
54%
26%
28%
40%
6%
 
 

Comments:

  • Females were more likely to think having a female doctor is very important (40%) as were people aged 18 – 24 (34%) and 25 – 34 (34%). 39% of those on no income and 35% of those with dependent children rated having a female doctor as very important.

Training of general practitioners

Question: How long do you think the training is to become a GP?

 
TOTAL
Under 5 years
6%
5-7 years
61%
8-10 years
27%
10+ years
6%

Comments:

  • These results suggest that the public is generally unaware of the length and specialized nature of the training required to become a GP.

 Government proposal of independent nurse practitioners

Question: Below is a list of statements regarding the introduction of independent nurse practitioners. Please indicate your level of agreement with each statement: 

 
Total agree
Total disagree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
The best outcome for patients is having doctors and nurses work together
82%
2%
42%
40%
15%
2%
*
Nurses should be used more in doctor’s practices, but with oversight by doctors
71%
6%
21%
50%
23%
5%
1%
The Government knows it is cheaper to train nurses and this is why they believe in nurse practitioners
59%
13%
19%
40%
29%
11%
2%
Nurses are fully trained professionals and should be allowed to practice without regard to doctors
20%
49%
4%
16%
31%
36%
13%
 
Primary health care policy models

Question: Policy makers are currently considering a series of models. Please read the below statements and indicate your level of agreement with each:

 
Total agree
Total disagree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
The General Practitioner remains as the primary point of care for all health issues
80%
4%
42%
38%
16%
3%
1%
The Government funds more nurses to work with GPs in general practices
72%
4%
25%
47%
24%
3%
1%
The Government changes the system to allow nurses to substitute for GPs
23%
46%
4%
19%
31%
29%
17%
 

Question: Please read the following list of statements and indicate your level of agreement:

 
Total agree
Total disagree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
It is important that I have a usual family doctor who I know and trust
86%
2%
50%
36%
12%
2%
*
GPs and family doctors are the fundamental pillar of good health in our society – other health professionals have important roles but cannot replace the GP
78%
5%
33%
45%
18%
4%
1%
I get good value from the time spent with my General Practitioner.
71%
8%
30%
41%
22%
6%
2%
The reason we don’t have enough doctors is because of bad government policy - it’s time the government invested in training more GPs
69%
8%
31%
38%
23%
7%
1%
As our population ages we need to accept that a personal GP or family doctor is a thing of the past – we just don’t have enough of them.  
35%
40%
8%
27%
24%
26%
14%
 
 
Conducted by:
Essential Research
Suite 10, Level 8
377 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000

The fieldwork and data processing was conducted by Your Source. Your Source has an online consumer panel of over 100,000 Australians. To reach the sample of the survey, approximately 6000 – 7000 participants are invited to take part in the survey. This returns a sample of at least 1000. Participants are offered incentives in the form of ‘zoints’, which are collected and transferred for gift certificates. 

The survey was in the field from the 27th to the 31st of January 2010. Open-ended comments were analyzed either manually or with Leximancer software. The complete list of open answers is provided separately to the AMA for further internal analysis.
 
Properly constructed sample surveys can provide results that are described as statistically reliable. The level of statistical reliability is dependent upon the sample size and (except where it is extremely small) the size of the population has no practical effect.
 
A survey that has 1000 respondents will provide results that are – at the 95% confidence level – subject to a sampling variation of between 2% and 3% at the total response level. Sub-samples, because of their smaller size, will exhibit larger sampling variances. The following table shows the sampling variances at the 95% confidence level for a range of sample sizes and response levels.
 
Sample Size
Variation where the answer is near the percentage of
 
10% or 90%
20% or 80%
30% or70%
40% or 60%
50%
100
6%
8%
9%
9%
10%
200
4%
5%
6%
7%
7%
300
3%
5%
5%
6%
6%
400
3%
4%
4%
5%
5%
500
3%
4%
4%
4%
4%
600
2%
3%
4%
4%
4%
700
2%
3%
3%
4%
4%
800
2%
3%
3%
3%
3%
900
2%
3%
3%
3%
3%
1000
2%
3%
3%
3%
3%
 
Overall the confidence level was set as 95%. In this report where variation in sub-samples is statistically significant a comment has been made.
 
For the purposes of simplicity we have rounded percentages to the nearest whole number. This may result in some percentage totals being 99% or 101%.