Abstract:
Summary Aims The National Primary Medical Care Survey was undertaken to describe primary health care in New Zealand, including the characteristics of providers and their practices, the patients they see, the problems presented and the management offered. The study covered private general practices (i.e. family doctors), community-governed organisations, and Accident and Medical (A&M) clinics and Emergency Departments. It was intended to compare data across practice types as well as over time. Subsidiary aims included gathering information on the activities of nurses in primary health care, trialling an electronic data collection tool and developing coding software. This report describes the characteristics of practitioners, patients and patient visits for six primary health care practices classified as community-governed non-profits. Other reports in the series describe private family doctors, Mäori doctors, after-hours activities and other types of practice, and will analyse differences in practice content that have occurred over time or that exist between practice settings.
