BARRIERS TO ACCESS - GENERAL HEALTH SERVICES
All survey respondents aged 15 years and over were asked whether there had been any time in the past year that they needed health care but could not get it. Across Australia, approximately 937,800 people (5%) reported there had been times they had been unable to access health services when they needed them. In 82% of cases, the health service unable to be accessed was a GP. Medical specialists (9%) and hospital care (4%) were the next highest types of service people reported being unable to access (see Table 2.4).
The main reasons reported for not being able to access health care when required were that waiting times were too long or there were no appointments available; or there was no service available in the area at the time it was needed (47% and 34% respectively) (see Table 2.5 for more detail).
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