New Zealand is overdue a comprehensive survey of its general practices, with new University of Otago research being the first look at practice size and location since 2001-02.
"Little is known about contemporary New Zealand general practice characteristics in terms of staffing, ownership and services," the article awaiting publication in the Journal of Primary Health Care said.
"Practice size and location may affect the safety and quality of patient care."
Sharon Leitch, a research fellow at the Dunedin School of Medicine, and her co-authors randomly selected 72 general practices, after first dividing them in to urban, half urban, and rural, as well as small, medium and large.
Forty-five practices responded, which represented just under 5% of all practices in New Zealand, a small sample size, which meant a follow-up study should be carried out to confirm its findings, Dr Leitch said.
"Little is known about the structural characteristics of contemporary New Zealand general practices."
The 2001-02 survey was comprehensive but it was focused on patients, providers and care rather than practices, the article said.
"Understanding practice characteristics may assist funders and providers to appropriately distribute resources."
The study found no significant differences in practice ownership due to size or location, but did find nurses in larger practices were more likely to insert intravenous lines or take blood.
Larger practices had more patients enrolled per GP than medium or small practices.
General practice is under close scrutiny in the southern district with health authorities unrolling a new primary and community care strategy.
In addition, Health Minister David Clark boosted funding to primary care in this year’s Budget, and has consistently said he expected the health system to become more focused on primary care in the future.
The Journal article had mentioned that "larger practices may be able to arrange GP workflow more efficiently by economies of scale; however this finding may also represent reduced quality of patient care."
You can read the research article here.
