Medical Practitioners Survey

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    NAME OF ORGANISATION
    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    OVERVIEW
    The Medical Practitioners Survey (MPS) is an ad hoc survey which will collect data on demographics, workload, and medical business arrangements for medical practitioners in Australia.

    PURPOSE
    The MPS has two key purposes:

    1. to collect information for creation of the frame for the Medical Businesses Survey (MBS - see ID 244). Details on the medical and administrative businesses the medical practitioner is associated with will be collected; and
    2. to provide basic information on the workload of general practitioners and specialists (by broad type of specialty) and the geographic area in which services are provided (State/Territory, metropolitan/rural/remote). The 2002 survey will reflect changes in the sector since 1994-95. Such information as hours worked on different activities and number of private patient contacts consultations in an average working week will be collected.

    SCOPE
    The scope is all medical practitioners who:
    • provided at least one Medicare claimable service between 1 April 2001 and 30 September 2001;
    • operated in a private medical practice in Australia for at least 3 months of the 2001–2002 financial year; and
    • spent at least 50% of their working hours on private patient activities in an average working week.

    Medical practitioners who did not spend at least 50% of their working hours on private patient activities in an average working week, for example those working primarily in hospitals and other institutions such as universities and government departments, were excluded, as were any medical practitioners who commenced operating on or after 1 October 2001.

    It should be noted that there are some differences in scope and coverage between the 1994–95 and 2002 ABS surveys on private medical practitioners. The 1994–95 Medical Practitioners Survey excluded low activity medical practitioners from the published estimates (that is, those with less than 50 Medicare claimable services in the six month period November 1994 to April 1995). Estimates produced from the 1994–95 survey reported 3,091 low activity general practitioners and 1,513 low activity specialists. These low activity medical practitioners accounted for 5% of the private medical practice consultations made in an average working week.

    In contrast to the 1994–95 survey, the 2002 Medical Practitioners survey did not exclude low activity medical practitioners. Estimates produced from the 2002 survey will therefore differ from those in the 1994–95 survey publication according to this difference in scope. As such, users making comparisons of these data, should do so with care.

    COVERAGE

    The frame used for the Medical Practitioners Survey was taken from the Health Insurance Commission's Medicare Provider File. The information provided by the Commission was in accordance with the secrecy provision under Section 130 of the Health Insurance Act.

    DATA DETAIL

    Conceptual framework
    The MPS is the first stage of a two stage approach to collecting a profile of the medical services industries in Australia. For the MPS the 'practitioner' will be the statistical unit. For Stage 2, the Medical Business Survey (MBS) , a business will be the statistical unit. These are medical businesses and administrative services businesses which service medical businesses. These businesses generally equate to an ABN, from which income and expense and employment details will be sought.

    Main outputs
    Details on the medical and administrative businesses the medical practitioner is associated with, including their Australian Business Number (ABN), will be collected to enable frame creation for the MBS.

    MPS: Estimates for hours worked in various activities undertaken and no. of private patient contacts will be produced for general practitioners by sex, age grouping, State, broad area (city, country and remote), as well as data for practitioners working in 'corporate' and traditional practice arrangements. Data for specialists will be produced by sex, age groupings and State.

    Classifications

    • The Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) Classification System (produced by Commonwealth. Dept. Health & Aged Care)
    • Type of medical specialisation (derived from the Health Insurance Commission speciality code)
    • ASGC Remoteness Structure

    Other concepts (summary)
    Not applicable

    GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
    Australia
    New South Wales
    Victoria
    Queensland
    South Australia
    Western Australia
    Tasmania
    Northern Territory
    ACT
    Other (specify below)

    Comments and/or Other Regions
    Data relating to GPs will be available for metropolitan, rural and remote areas [as defined in the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) Classification System produced by Commonwealth. Dept. Health & Aged Care and in the ASGC remoteness structure produced by the ABS].

    COLLECTION FREQUENCY
    Adhoc

    Frequency comments


    COLLECTION HISTORY
    The survey was first undertaken for the 1994/95 reference year.

    The 2002 survey will use the same survey methodology. Some data items from the 1994/95 survey will not be collected due to lack of user demand. These are: training with the RACGP, Fellow of RACGP, vocational registration, no. of surgery locations, voluntary work. The 2002 survey will collect additional data on the remoteness classification of the area in which services are provided (Metropolitan, rural and remote areas).

    DATA AVAILABILITY
    Yes

    Data availability comments



    DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
    17/09/2004 08:35 AM