• Key points
  
• What agencies are doing
  
• What you can do to help
  
• More information
  
• What we want to achieve
  

Key points

This indicator measures the percentage of people who felt unable to go to a doctor in the previous 12 months, although they wanted to. General Practitioners (GPs) are part of the frontline of primary health care provision. Accessibility to a GP is an important issue in both treatment and prevention of poor health.

• Three quarters of the respondents across the Waikato Region said there was no time in the last 12 months when they or a member of their household wanted to go to a GP, but didn’t. However, almost a quarter of the sample (22.5%) said there was a time in the last 12 months when they or a member of their household wanted to go to a GP, but didn’t.
• There was considerable variation between territorial authority areas, in terms of the proportion who said there was a time in the last 12 months when they or a member of their household wanted to go to a GP, but didn’t.  Thames-Coromandel District had the third highest proportion of respondents who said they wanted to go to a GP in the last 12 months but didn't, at 25.7%.
• Note that these results are subject to a certain amount of sample error. Respondents most likely to report having barriers to health care were under 35 years of age, renting or boarding, on lower incomes, living in town rather than in the country, and of Māori descent. The main reported barriers were cost (9%) and availability (4%).

Respondents’ rating of barriers to accessing health care – Waikato territorial authority areas 2007

Source: 2007 Waikato Community Outcomes Survey (International Research Consultants Ltd/MARCO)

What agencies are doing

Information currently being collated.

What you can do to help

Information currently being collated.

More information

More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.

What we want to achieve

The community outcomes we are seeking to achieve by reducing barriers to accessing General Practitioners are:

• We are healthy, with active lifestyles and enjoy a total sense of well-being. Everyone has access to affordable quality health services throughout the Waikato region.
• Maori enjoy the same quality of health, education, housing, employment and economic outcomes as non-Maori.