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Cate Swannell
Med J Aust 2018; 209 (11): . || doi: 10.5694/mja18.n1012
Published online: 10 December 2018

Findings from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Patient Experience Survey indicate that young people are less satisfied with their GP experiences than older patients. About 5.2 million people aged 15–34 years saw a GP in 2017–18, but only 67% felt that the GP always listened carefully to them, compared with 83% of those aged 65 years or more. Young people also less likely than older people to feel that the GP always showed them respect (75% v 87%) and less likely to feel that the GP always spent enough time with them (70% v 84%). Director of Health Statistics at the ABS, Louise Gates, said: “Further results from the survey show that as expected, young people aged 15–34 years generally used health services less often than older people, with 77% seeing a GP, 26% seeing a medical specialist, and 10% being admitted to hospital. This compared with 96%, 57% cent and 20% of people aged 65 years and over. However, those aged 15–34 years were twice as likely to have seen an after hours GP (10%) as those aged 65 years and over (5%). At the same time, people aged 15 to 34 years were three times more likely to delay seeing a medical specialist (27% compared with 9%) and nearly twice as likely to delay seeing a dental professional (35% compared with 20%) than those aged 65 years and over. In particular, younger people were more likely to delay or not use health services due to cost (13% v 2% of people aged 65 years or more). Similarly, 21% delayed or did not see a dental professional due to cost compared with 9% of people aged 65 years and over,” Ms Gates said.




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