New Survey Aims to Find Out How Much Time Hunter Residents Spend in GP Waiting Rooms

BY ISABEL EVERETT 

Hunter residents are being urged to fill out a survey released today, the next time they find themselves in a GP waiting room, to find out where the longest wait times are being experienced. 

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has launched the National Waiting Time Survey, which will ask patients how long it took them to get an appointment, how long they sat in the waiting room, which suburb their appointment was in and the healthcare provider.  

“We know Australian families find it hard to get in to see their GP, and when they finally get an appointment, they almost always get stuck in the waiting room,” said the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis.

"We know our health system is already under pressure and isn’t adapting to our aging and growing population," he said. 

The National Waiting Time Survey will quantify where patients are spending the longest time sitting in a waiting room, and where patients have the shortest wait to see a doctor.

"We want to understand the full extent of, and geography of the bottlenecks so we can address them at the source,” Mr Tambassias said.

According to the ABS, almost 1 in 5 people in Emergency Departments could have been treated by a GP.

Figures also show 20 percent, or 33.3 million of Australia’s 158.3 million GP visits could be diverted to a pharmacy for treatment instead.

“We already know Australians are waiting too long to be seen by a GP. When patients can’t get an appointment, they are left with the choice to either go without an appointment and ignore their ailment, diagnose themselves on the internet or present to an ED," Mr Tambassis said. 

"These are all bad outcomes for patients and our health system."

“Next time patients are sitting in a GP’s waiting room they need to fill out the survey to help us understand where the bottlenecks are so we can fix the system,” said Mr Tambassis.

The National Waiting Time Survey can be found at the fixthesystem.com.au/survey website.