Rural doctors provide more out-of-hours and obstetric care and
do more minor surgery than their city counterparts, according to
the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare/University of
Sydneys latest report on general practice.
Almost half the doctors in rural areas said their practice
provides all its own after-hours care. Only 1 in 5 metropolitan GPs
provided this kind of service.
Rural doctors are more likely to provide services not covered by
Medicare or any other funding programs. They also deal with more
sunspots and skin cancers, manage more pregnancies, excise more
lesions and treat more fractures.
The report, Its different in the bush, presents
differences between rural and metropolitan general practice based
on information from over 200,000 doctor-patient encounters drawn
from a random sample of 2,014 doctors.
Director of the AIHWs General Practice Statistics and
Classification Unit, Professor Helena Britt, said that there were
differences between rural and metropolitan practice, particularly
in small rural and remote areas - but fewer than there were a
decade ago.
Rural GPs are now younger than their metropolitan counterparts
whereas 10 years ago they were older. It looks like incentives to
encourage new graduates to rural areas are having an effect,
Professor Britt said.
Rural doctors are still more likely to be men - 1 in 4 GPs in
rural areas are female compared with 1 in 3 in city areas - but in
the last 10 years there has been a significant rise in the number
of female GPs working in rural areas.
Better access to female doctors in the bush has made a big
difference; 10 years ago, fewer rural women were seeing their local
doctor for their gynaecological care. There now appears to be equal
access for this kind of problem.
Its different in the bush also shows that patients in rural
areas are more often overweight or obese, and men living in large
rural centres have higher rates of drinking hazardous levels of
alcohol. Depression was more commonly managed in large rural
centres.
Rural GPs are in an ideal position to intervene - and have a
real impact on the health of their population, Professor Britt
said.
5 March 2001
Further information: A/Professor Helena Britt
(lead author) tel. 02 9845 8150 or 0411 197 938 (mobile)
Media inquiries: Michelle Wells, AIHW, tel. 02
6244 1012, 0407 012 520 (mobile) or 0407 483 411(mobile).
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability.