Unmet need for referred services as measured by general practice
| Autor: | Graham McGeoch, Nikki Elliot, Melissa Kerdemelidis, Kieran Holland, Catherine Fink, Carolyn Gullery, Anne Dixon, Brett Shand |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Referral Adolescent Health Status Population General Practice Health Behavior Health Services Accessibility State Medicine Unmet needs 03 medical and health sciences Survey methodology Young Adult 0302 clinical medicine Medicine Humans 030212 general & internal medicine education Child Referral and Consultation Aged Service (business) Aged 80 and over education.field_of_study Health Services Needs and Demand business.industry 030503 health policy & services Racial Groups Equity (finance) General Medicine Middle Aged Mental health Socioeconomic Factors Family medicine Child Preschool General practice Female 0305 other medical science business New Zealand |
| Zdroj: | Journal of primary health care. 9(4) |
| ISSN: | 1172-6156 |
| Popis: | ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Unmet needs are a key indicator of the success of a health system. Clinicians and funders in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand were concerned that unmet health need was hidden. AIM The aim of this survey was to estimate the proportion of patients attending general practice who were unable to access clinically indicated referred services. METHODS The survey used a novel method to estimate unserviced health needs. General practitioners (GPs, n = 54) asked their patients (n = 2135) during a consultation about any health needs requiring a referred service. If both agreed that a service was potentially beneficial and not available, this was documented on an e-referral system for review. The outcomes of actual referrals were also reviewed. RESULTS The patient group was broadly representative of the Canterbury population, but over-sampled female and middle-aged people and under-sampled Māori. Data adjusted to regional demographics showed that 3.6% of patients had a GP-confirmed unserviced health need. Elective orthopaedic surgery, general surgery and mental health were areas of greatest need. Unserviced health needs were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) associated with greater deprivation, middle-age, and receiving high health-use subsidies. DISCUSSION To our knowledge, this is the first survey of GP and patient agreement on unserviced referred health needs. Measuring unserviced health needs in this way is directly relevant to service planning because the gaps identified reflect clinically indicated services that patients want and need. The survey method is an improvement on declined referral rates as a measure of need. Key factors in the method were using a patient-initiated GP consultation and an e-referral system to collect data. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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