Patient experiences with GPs, medical specialists, dental professionals and hospital emergency departments in NSW have declined since 2020. And research reveals that older people report the biggest increase in dissatisfaction of any age group.
It might not come as a surprise to learn that living in a socioeconomically challenged area can be a big barrier to health access, experience and outcomes, but a new report lays bare just how stark the difference between some areas is.
Access denied: Australians locked out of quality healthcare, compiled by the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) in conjunction with the University of Canberra, looked at patient experiences in accessing and receiving healthcare across NSW.
The report analysed how different demographic groups access healthcare and experience challenges around affordability, wait times and satisfaction levels. The data was then compared to a similar study conducted in 2020.
The research showed a concerning increase in the proportion of people delaying or forgoing visits to GPs, medical specialists and dentists. Crucially, this overall delay and decline in visits has not decreased demand for these services and has resulted in an increase in the proportion of people waiting to be seen.
A person’s likelihood of having a bad patient experience was found to be significantly worse in regional areas versus those living in the city, with the experience generally getting worse the further out from Sydney they lived.
Delayed visits due to cost
Those most likely to delay a visit to a medical professional for financial reasons were older people and those on low incomes, including the Age Pension.
People aged 65 and over located in greater Sydney were a whopping 1546 per cent more likely to delay a medical appointment due to cost than they were in 2020.
And it hasn’t exactly been roses for everyone else either. The proportion of people on middle and high incomes delaying due to cost also increased significantly, at roughly the same rate or slightly higher than the overall population, reflecting growing cost-of-living pressures across the whole of society.
The proportion of people waiting more than 24 hours for urgent GP care increased by 35 per cent, and one in 10 (12 per cent) felt their GP didn’t spend enough time with them.
Overall, delayed visits to GPs due to cost were up 246 per cent over 2020, delayed visits to specialists up 116 per cent and delayed visits to dentists up 25 per cent.
Health services under pressure
Although demand for GP services is up significantly, the report found the number of GP appointments actually carried out dropped. In turn, they found this was causing a greater proportion of people to seek help at an emergency department.
The data showed one in four (23 per cent) of emergency department visits were because their GP was unavailable, and one in four waits longer than they deem acceptable to see a specialist (24 per cent).
This was higher in regional NSW (27.6 per cent) and more likely to occur in areas with higher economic disadvantage. People in regional NSW were also more likely to have felt that their GP could have provided care for their most recent ED visit, at 18.2 per cent, compared to 16 per cent overall and 14.4 per cent in Greater Sydney.
Do these results track with your experiences accessing healthcare? How do you think we can solve the problem? Let us know in the comments section below.
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My regional GP clinic bulk bills those with concession cards. The problem is that it takes about a month to get an appointment so a lot of people go to the ED at our public hospital where they can get seen to on the same day after a few hours of waiting.
Even those with private health insurance whose GP does not bulk bill often have to wait a week or more for an appointment so some also go to the ED to get seen to the same day.
The government has proposed setting up walk in GP super clinics which bulk bill everyone as a solution and some have been established although not where I live so I can not comment on how effective they are.
My GP surgery doesn’t bulk bill, as far as I’m aware. Standard consult is $100, as a pensioner I get $5 discount. I believe the surgery needs these payments to survive (previous GP surgery had to close because of financial issues). The Government payments to Dr’s MUST increase.