General practice activity in Australia 2003-04

This publication is the 16th in the General Practice Series produced by the General Practice Statistics and Classification Unit, a Collaborating Unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the University of Sydney.It reports the results of the sixth year of the BEACH program, April 2003 to March 2004. Data reported by 1,000 general practitioners on 100,000 GP-patient encounters are used to describe aspects of general practice in Australia: the general practitioners and their patients; the problems managed and the treatments provided. Information is also reported on body weight to height ratio, smoking status and alcohol use of a subsample of patients.Changes in relative rates of selected problems and management techniques between 1999-00 and 2003-04 are also investigated. Data for each of the last five years of BEACH are summarised in the appendix to this report.