A survey of general practitioners: implications for the hospital/community interface

This paper presents the results of a survey that was conducted under the auspices of a Commonwealth-funded Ambulatory Care Reform Project. The survey was undertaken in all telephone areas of South Australia (08, 085, 086, 087, 088) to investigate issues of access to, and availability of, clinical allied health outpatient services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital with respect to general practitioners. Six hundred and twenty general practitioners in South Australia received a mailed survey enclosing a reply-paid envelop. Forty-nine per cent of the general practitioners responded. The highest response was from practitioners in the metropolitan area (08 telephone area) and the immediate Adelaide country area (085 telephone area). General practitioners supplied quality and in-depth responses that clearly indicated issues they felt impeded full use of clinical allied health services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. These issues have implications not only for the clinical allied health outpatient services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, but for all clinical allied health outpatient services in the public hospital system.