A comparison of Maori and Non-Maori patient visits to doctors: the National Primary Medical Care Survey (NatMedCa) 2001/02. Report 6.

Abstract

Executive Summary Aims. The aim of the National Primary Medical Care Survey (NatMedCa) is to describe primary medical care in New Zealand, including the characteristics of providers and the practices they work in, the patients they see, the problems they manage and the investigation and treatment that they offer. The study included private general practices, community-governed (CG) providers, Māori providers, Accident and Medical (A&M) clinics and Emergency Departments. This report presents findings describing the experiences of Māori patients during their visits to doctors. Methods. The study was a nationally representative, multi-stage probability sample of private general practices, stratified by place and practice type. Each GP was asked to provide data on themselves and on their practice, and to report on a 25% sample of patients in each of two week-long periods separated by an interval of six months. In addition, and over the same time period, all CG primary health care practices in New Zealand were also invited to participate, as was a 50% random sample of all A&M clinics distributed over the country (and four representative hospital Emergency Departments ñ not reported here). All practitioners within these participating practices and clinics were in turn asked to participate. Similar data collection methods were used as for the private GPs, except that A&M patient visit data were collected for one week from each clinic with clinics spread over the year. A number of Māori providers were recruited into the survey, but these providers were included through recruitment processes for CG and private GPs and not through a recruitment process specifically for Māori providers. The findings for Māori providers cannot, therefore, be considered to be representative of all Māori providers across the country. Results. These results are presented in three parts: • the experiences of Māori patients in general practices across the country • the experiences of Māori in each of the three general practice provider types • the experiences of Māori patients in A&M clinics.