Australians rate their GPs

Older patients, who visit their doctor frequently are highly satisfied with their GPs, according to Maria Potiriadis, from the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne, as reported in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Using the General Practice Assessment Questionnaire (GPAQ), the researchers found that the majority of the 7,130 Victorian patients who took part in the survey reported high levels of satisfaction, with those with the greatest satisfaction tending to be older, to rate their health more highly, to visit their GP more frequently, and to see the same GP each time. 

Ms Potiriadis said the GPAQ was a relatively new tool but would eventually enable comparisons of general practice care across time, between practices and between patient subgroups.

The study showed that on a scale of 0 to 100, respondents rated access to their local medical practice 68.6 and communication between themselves and their GP was rated 84.

“Compared with national benchmarks in the United Kingdom, the GPs and practices participating in our study were rated higher on all six GPAQ items,” Ms Potiriadis said.  “However, higher scores in our sample may be partially attributable to differences in the organisation of general practice: while Australians are free to consult any GP for their own health care, UK patients who consult GPs under the National Health Service are allocated to a GP based on postcode of residence and catchment area of the general practice,” she said.