This is the second year Hauora Taiwhenua has conducted a survey of Rural General Practices to quantify and better understand their current operational status, issues and morale. Our goal is to develop a repository of sector-informed data that monitors key indicators vital to rural general practice and track changes to them over time.
Building on insights from our first survey last year, we refined our methodology for collecting and analysing response data this year. This refinement enhances our ability to produce multi-year data and enable comparisons between rural general practice indicators and urban or national data produced by other organisations.
Consequently, in this second year, we have included only a few indicators showing results from both surveys. We are optimistic that with high response rates, support from Health NZ in providing system-level data, and the University of Otago’s Geographic Classification for Health (GCH), the range of indicators that we can report on a multi-year basis will expand.
This year’s survey achieved a 54% response rate, with 103 out of 190 rural general practices classified as ‘rural’ under the Primary Health Organisation Service Agreement (PHOSA) participating. Survey respondents proportionally represent the GCH R1-R3 areas, mirroring the population distribution in each category.
Collectively, their registered patients account for 46% of the rural population.
Where applicable, survey results have been extrapolated to provide an indication of the national perspective.
