General practitioner (GP) access to Specialist Outpatient Services in Queensland

Abstract

Background: Burgeoning waiting times for GP referred patients have become ubiquitous, resulting in increased anxiety, delayed diagnosis, and patient harm. With 1.4 to 1.8-fold higher mortality rates, 1.4 and 2.5-fold greater burden of disease, and higher potentially preventable hospitalisation respectively, rural Australians suffer further disadvantage. Capturing primary and secondary care interaction, the Queensland Specialist Outpatient Data Collection, and Specialist Outpatient data sets were established in 2015 and 2016 and were interrogated for the present study. Aim/Objectives: This study aimed to conduct a comparative analysis of General Practitioner referrals to Specialist Outpatient Clinics between rural communities, and urban settings; (1) access and availability, (2) referral patterns, and (3) formative review of rural and remote General Practitioner referrals. Methods: De-identified data were extracted for GP referrals to public Specialists for period of 3 years (2016 –2019). These were then transformed and ranked by rurality and socioeconomic disadvantage using the Modified Monash Model, and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas scores. Quantitative analysis was then carried out to appraise the findings per 100 000 population. Findings: A total of 14 reporting hospital and health services encompassing 32 reporting hospital units were found to provide outpatient services to approximately 5.07 million residents. Within this data 87 clinic types were coded accordingly. The formal statistical analysis is currently underway. Implications: This will be the first state-wide longitudinal review of its kind informing the baseline characteristics of the current health system. These results will act as a control for future healthcare improvement activities, and highlight existing problems to be targeted by future research.