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released: 30 Sep 2005 media release

Locality matters: the influence of geography on general practice in Australia 1998-2004 is the 17th in the General Practice Series produced by the Australian General Practice Statistics and Classification Centre, University of Sydney, a collaborating unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.It reports results from six years of the BEACH program, April 1998 to March 2004, using data reported by 6019 GPs on 601,900 GP-patient encounters. Each of the seven geographical categories of the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) of Australia are compared with the national average, in terms of GP and patient characteristics, patient reasons for encounter, problems managed and treatments provided. Results are further analysed using the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Remoteness Structure. Summaries of results for each RRMA category and a summary of trends with increasing remoteness across ASGC categories are provided.

ISSN 1442 3022; ISBN 978 1 74024 498 5; Cat. no. GEP 17; 166pp.; OUT OF PRINT

  • Publication

Locality matters: the influence of geography on general practice in Australia 1998-2004

Full publication

Publication table of contents

  • Preliminary material (194K PDF)
    • Title and verso pages
    • Foreword
    • Acknowledgments
    • List of tables
    • List of figures
    • Executive summary
  • Sections
    1. Introduction (135K PDF)
      • Aims
      • Geographical classification
        • RRMA
        • ARIA and ASGC Remoteness Structure
      • MBS claims and full-time workload equivalents
    2. Methods (152K PDF)
      • Sampling frame
      • Recruitment methods
      • Data elements
      • Applying RRMA and ASGC Remoteness Structure to the BEACH sample
      • The BEACH relational database
      • Statistical methods
      • Classification of data
        • Classification of pharmaceuticals
      • Quality assurance
      • Validity and reliability
    3. The sample (146K PDF)
      • GP sample size
      • The BEACH data set
        • RRMA versus ASGC Remoteness concordance
        • BEACH versus MBS claims
    4. The participating GPs (169K PDF)
      • Characteristics of the GPs
      • GP computer use in the practice
    5. The encounters (166K PDF)
      • Types of encounter
      • Distribution of Medicare-claimable encounters
      • Summary of morbidity and management
    6. The patients (229K PDF)
      • Patient characteristics
        • Number of RFEs at encounter
        • Reasons for encounter by ICPC-2 component
        • Reasons for encounter by ICPC-2 chapter and common individual RFEs
    7. Problems managed (240K PDF)
      • Number of problems managed at the encounter
      • Nature of morbidity
        • Types of problems managed
        • Problems managed by ICPC-2 chapter
        • Most frequently managed problems
        • Most frequently managed new problems
        • National Health Priority Areas
    8. Treatments (219K PDF)
      • Medications
        • Types of medications prescribed or supplied
      • Other treatments
        • Clinical treatments
        • Procedures
    9. Referrals (155K PDF)
      • Referral rates
    10. Tests and investigations (194K PDF)
      • Rates of tests and investigations
      • Distribution of pathology orders across MBS pathology groups
      • Distribution of imaging tests across MBS groups
    11. Summary of results (139K PDF)
      • RRMA
      • ASGC Remoteness
    12. Discussion (131K PDF)
      • RRMA versus ASGC
      • GP visit rates per head of population
      • National Health Priority Areas
      • Methodological issues
    13. Conclusion
  • End matter
    • Reference list (167K PDF)
    • Glossary
    • Abbreviations
    • Appendices
      • Appendix 1: Example of a 2003-04 recording form (468K PDF)1
      • Appendix 2: GP characteristics questionnaire for 2003-04 (254K PDF)
      • Appendix 3: Code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS
      • Appendix 4: Chronic code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS

Additional material

  • Appendix 3: Code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS (154K PDF) 1
  • Appendix 4: Chronic code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS (76K PDF)

Notes and corrections

  1. Appendixes 3-4 were not available as part of the printed copy.

Recommended citation

Knox S, Britt H, Pan Y, Miller GC, Bayram C, Valenti L, Charles J, Henderson J, Ng A & O'Halloran J 2005. Locality matters: the influence of geography on general practice in Australia 1998-2004. Cat. no. GEP 17. Canberra: AIHW.