Evidence says that having a regular GP is beneficial in terms for health outcomes. Even patients who visiting the same practice have better health outcomes due to the continuity of care. A new Australian study looks at the extent to which patients use multiple GPs and GP practices. The prevalence of people visiting multiple practices can’t be determined from Medicare data so 2477 people were reached via an online survey in 2013. The people surveyed mostly represented the typical Australian population in terms of health status and gender, although there were a higher number of younger people with 59 percent of respondents aged under 50 and only 6 percent aged over 70. Respondents were asked about whether they had they been to a GP in the last year, how many times they visited a GP, did they have a usual GP and / or a usual practice and if they had they been to more than one GP in the last year.
93 percent of respondents reported attending a general practice in the previous year, 79 percent of them had attended a practice with four or more GPs. According to the survey, over 80 percent of respondents said they had a usual GP and 90 percent had a usual practice. However, more than a quarter of respondents indicated they had been to more than one practice in the past year. The research study titled ‘How common is multiple general practice attendance in Australia?’ was published in the Australian Journal of General Practice and the findings showed that people who visited multiple practices were more likely to be younger and single, and live in a major city. People who had higher levels of education were also more likely to attend multiple practices.
The concerns about doctor hopping
Continuity of care is a core component of high-quality primary care. Research shows that people who attend multiple practices are more than twice as likely to attend emergency departments. Patients are also more likely to attend a practice other than their regular practice for what they perceive to be simple or non-urgent reasons. Such people are also likely to attend very large multiple practices with ten or more GPs which may be due to the ability of such practices to be better able to accommodate walk-ins.
Although My Health Record is expected to improve access to the health care records of patients, the concerns is that patient consultation notes are not available and patients often don’t tell their regular GP that they have been to see another doctor. It has been suggested that Australia adopt a model similar to that used in the UK and Netherlands where patients are registered with a single GP or GP practice. However, restricted access limits choice and rapid access to service. It is recognised that the fragmented care needs to be managed and one suggestion is through better sharing of patient information between GP practices.