Welcome to the AMA Victoria Website

Advancing the Medical Profession, Advancing the health of Victorians.

Exposing the hidden waiting list for outpatient appointments

One hundred GP members responded to the AMA Victoria GP Section survey 'Exposing the hidden waiting list for outpatient appointments” between 7 and 14 July 2006.

Summary of survey results
More than two-thirds of GP respondents found that in the last 3 months access to outpatient appointments for their medical patients was poor or very poor, with almost 80 per cent saying access for surgical patients was poor or very poor. No respondents said access was very good, with only 2 per cent reporting access was good for surgical appointments.

Three quarters of respondents felt that access to outpatient appointments had deteriorated over the last three years.
 
GPs felt waiting times for out patient appointments were unacceptably long for a number of specialties, but were worse for:
  • orthopaedics (92 per cent of respondents)
  • ear, nose and throat surgery (46 per cent)
  • urology (41 per cent)
  • neurology (66 per cent)
  • gastroenterology (49 per cent)
  • endocrinology (39 per cent)
  • respiratory medicine (31 per cent).
When asked about the impact of the long wait for a specialist public outpatient appointment, the survey found that 82 per cent of GP respondents had patients who had deteriorated due extended wait for outpatient appointments. The majority of these GPs indicated that more than forty per cent of their patients:
  • made more frequent visits to see their GP
  • had decreased mobility and levels of activity.
The survey also found that more than a third of GPs had more than forty per cent of their patients whilst waiting for an outpatient appointment who:
  • presented more often to emergency departments
  • needed higher doses of existing medications to maintain their health.
More specific comments made in the survey, included:
  • young and mid-aged patients who had been unable to work because of the pain and disability caused by their problems
  • older patients unable to keep mobile at all, are home bound and depressed
  • inability to get specialist opinions has led to delays in making serious diagnoses, as well as delayed follow-up of serious illnesses
  • public outpatient clinics do not exist in some regional areas and for some specialties in metropolitan areas
  • that as appointments in some specialties were so hard to come by, patients were encouraged to see specialists privately, which meant incurring out-of-pocket expenses
  • that the demand pressures on staff in Outpatients were excessive and often unreasonable.
Using the survey findings, AMA Victoria has called on the state Liberal and Labor parties to make improving access to public hospital outpatient services an urgent priority.

A State Health Initiative Policy paper was provided to the Minister for Health and Opposition Health spokesperson on Friday 28 July 2006, and the media campaign started on 31 July 2006.