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Apart from Medicare, what other work do GPs do?
Deborah Field1, Alison M Ward, Derrick G Lopez
1Fremantle Regional General Practice Network, Western Australia.
Australian Family Physician
|July 2, 2003
Summary
Australian general practitioners (GPs) dedicate an average of 9.5 hours weekly to non-Medicare funded activities, including patient care, teaching, and research. This work, encompassing both paid and unpaid roles, is common among GPs.
Area of Science:
- General Practice
- Health Economics
- Medical Workforce Research
Background:
- Growing emphasis on non-Medicare funded work for Australian general practitioners (GPs).
- Limited understanding of the scope and characteristics of this work.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the extent and nature of non-Medicare funded work undertaken by GPs in Western Australia.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional survey distributed to 2107 potential GPs in Western Australia.
- Analysis of response data from 480 GPs (27% response rate).
Main Results:
- 95% of GPs engage in paid or unpaid non-Medicare work.
- 83% provide non-Medicare patient care (avg. 6.5 hrs/week).
- 41% undertake paid non-patient work (avg. 4.3 hrs/week) in teaching, research, or divisions; unpaid work averages 5.6 hrs/week.
Conclusions:
- GPs collectively spend an average of 9.5 hours per week on non-Medicare funded activities.
- This includes patient care, teaching, research, and divisional roles.
- Job satisfaction was not correlated with the type or volume of non-Medicare funded work.