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 (ie, family doctors), community-governed organisations, and Accident and Medical (A&M) clinics and Hospital Emergency Departments. Māori providers were not explicitly sampled, but were derived through the sampling scheme; the Māori providers included in the study are likely to be a significant proportion of Māori providers nationally, based on evidence gathered via a follow-up survey of primary health care providers. Although, it must be noted that the sample of providers cannot be considered nationally representative, as a definitive and validated Māori primary medical care provider population is not known. 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 a sample of 14 primary health care practices classified as Māori primary medical care providers. Other reports in the series describe private family doctors, community-governed non-profits, 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.
