Access to diagnostics in primary care and the impact on a primary care led health service.

摘要

We undertook a postal survey of GPs to establish their current access to radiological and endoscopic tests. More thanudone fifth of GPs do not have direct access to abdominal (n=42, 21.4%) or pelvic (n=49, 24.6%) ultrasound in the publicudsystem. Where access is available public patients have an average 14 week waiting period. In stark contrast in theudprivate system virtually all GPs have direct access (n=159, 99.2% and n=156, 98.8% respectively for abdominal andudpelvic ultrasound) with an average wait of just over four days. Direct access to CT scan in the public system isudavailable to the minority of GPs, e.g. n=31, 18.4% for chest scan, in the public system; even where available, there isudan average 12 week wait for this. In comparison 151 (88.6%) GPs have access to CT chest scanning in the private sectorudwith an average waiting time of 5.4 working days. Such limited access to diagnostics impacts on the delivery of audquality service.