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Action on health Inequalities through General Practice III

This document, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Health Inequalities Project Report, demonstrates how the College, through its programs, could better ensure that general practitioners (GPs) are addressing the health and health care inequalities that exist in the Australian community. The Project focused on GP training, systems for development of standards, accreditation and quality assurance in General Practice, preventive care programs and systems of GP financing. The Project also explored the broader question of what is an appropriate role for a medical college in responding to an issue such as health inequalities.

The Project built on a body of background literature on the role of GPs in addressing widening and worsening inequalities in the health of disadvantaged patients and communities. The Project also built on work previously undertaken examining how GPs and Divisions of General Practice can address health inequalities (Access SERU et al., 1998), (Harris et al., 2000).

For each topic area, a focused literature search was undertaken. An extensive consultation phase involved 72 interviews with key GP stakeholders within and external to the College and key non-GP informants with an interest in equity in primary health care. In addition, two focus groups were held with 11 GPs in total in urban and rural settings and an email survey of GP registrars was undertaken, to which there were 17 responses. Key College documents were reviewed in relation to each topic area, and analysed to assess how evidence from the literature had or could be incorporated, in the context of data gathered from the consultation.

Publication Date: 27 July 2005