Chapter 3: Data Sources
3.7 Summary Measures for All Variables
The following tables show means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum values for the variable used in the analyses. Table 3.3 shows values for 2001. The population weighted means, and unweighted means across SLAs, are shown. Standard deviations relate to unweighted means. Table 3.4 shows values for those variables used as annual aggregates. Table 3.5 shows the changes over time in national averages for selected variables.
45Gridded Monthly Climate Data at 0.25 degree of latitude and longitude from the National Climate
Table 3.3: Summary data for 2001
The values were taken from the 816 aggregate SLAs.
Unweighted statistics across SLAs Variable Population
weighted
mean of SLAs Mean dev’n Min. Max. Std GP NUMBERS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Number of GPs per SLA 26.53 26.53 37.74 0.66 312.30 Number of GPs per 1000
population 1.12 1.10 0.62 0.11 4.83
Percent of GPs: female 34.81 29.99 17.37 0 100 Percent of GPs: aged under 40
years 27.93 29.60 21.21 0 100
Percent of GPs: aged 60 or more 15.36 15.87 16.81 0 100 Percent of GPs: vocationally
registered or in training 85.00 81.01 20.97 0 100 Percent of GPs: trained overseas 26.46 31.25 24.55 0 100
SERVICE NUMBERS AND PRICES (prices in 1996 dollars, AWE adjusted)
Services per capita 5.08 4.27 2.01 0.49 12.43 Services per GP 4,551 4,376 1,755 750 15,688 Average gross fee charged $23.88 $24.66 $2.86 $18.01 $43.37 Average net fee charged
(averaged across all services) $2.21 $2.82 $2.35 $0.00 $20.84 Average gap fee when gap was
charged $9.22 $8.62 $3.18 $0.00 $33.62
Average MBS rebate $21.67 $21.82 $1.62 $18.01 $34.31 Service mix (ratio of average
MBS rebate to rebate for a standard consultation (Table
3.4) 1.14 1.14 0.09 0.85 1.86
Average bulk billing rate (%) 76.23 67.69 24.56 0 100
PATIENTS (Whole patient equivalents (WPE))
WPE per SLA 20,001 20,001 27,879 199 187,228 Ratio of WPE to population 0.84 0.76 0.30 0.12 1.97
DISTANCE TO NEIGHBOURING SLAs
Average distance to contiguous
SLAs (km) 58.46 58.46 86.52 1.60 634.02
NOTE : Average prices in neighbouring SLAs by definition same as overall average prices ESTIMATED AVERAGE INTERNAL TRAVEL
Average travel distance within SLA (km) (number of practices
Table 3.3: Summary data for 2001 (cont.)
Unweighted statistics across SLAs Variable Population weighted mean Mean of SLAs Std
dev’n Min. Max. POPULATION AND ATTRIBUTES
Population per SLA 23,786 23,786 30,235 887 189,776 Percent of population: female 50.69 49.68 2.66 25.43 58.64 Percent of population: aged less
than 15 years 20.82 21.66 3.74 8.45 32.66 Percent of population: aged 65
years or more 12.60 12.97 4.61 0.94 30.11 Percent of population: with post
school qualifications 18.65 15.41 8.16 3.05 48.36 Percent of population aged 15
years or more : unemployed 4.41 4.23 1.48 1.11 10.54 Mean weekly personal income
(1996 dollars, CPI adjusted) $402.77 $381.79 $76.22 $240.89 $831.21 Percent of workforce: in blue-
collar industries 25.44 33.11 13.94 6.33 78.13 Indicator of major city 0.67 0.34 0.48 0 1 Indicator of inner regional area 0.20 0.28 0.45 0 1 Indicator of outer regional area 0.10 0.26 0.44 0 1 Indicator of remote area 0.01 0.07 0.25 0 1 Indicator of very remote area 0.01 0.04 0.21 0 1
SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDEX
SEIFA score for measure of
disadvantage 1,002.02 990.01 64.12 406.42 1,151.47
Dummy variable for lowest
SES quintile 0.20 0.23 0.41 0 1
Dummy variable for 2nd SES
quintile 0.20 0.22 0.43 0 1
Dummy variable for 3rd SES
quintile 0.20 0.25 0.43 0 1
Dummy variable for 4th SES
quintile 0.20 0.18 0.38 0 1
Dummy variable for highest
SES quintile 0.20 0.12 0.33 0 1
Table 3.3: Summary data for 2001 (cont.)
Unweighted statistics across SLAs Variable Population weighted mean Mean of SLAs Std
dev’n Min. Max. OTHER MEDICAL SERVICES DATA
Hospital beds per 1000 population
4.26
4.82 8.47 0 112.36
Hospitals per SLA 1.25 1.25 1.45 0 16.60
Nursing home beds per 1000
population 3.67 3.12 3.77 0 27.53
Dummy variable for presence of
emergency department 0.48 0.54 0.50 0 1
NOTE : Hospitals per SLA not all whole numbers as postcode level data allocated to SLA by apportioning according to a population based concordance.
OTHER DATA
Crude death rate (per 10,000
population) 65.92 69.70 27.01 9.25 167.89
Percent of population with
concession cards 35.83 37.92 10.41 4.85 78.23 Area (square kilometres) 9,356 9,356 42,746 1 671,466 Population density (persons per
square kilometre) 2.54 560 964 0.005 6,821 Number of private schools per
10,000 population 0.19 0.12 0.38 0 5.49
WORKERS BY AREA
Ratio of number of people
employed to population 0.39 0.39 0.43 0.02 4.81
Sources:
GP numbers, service numbers, patient numbers: Core data provided by DoHA.
Population data: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004).
MBS rebates set by Government: Biggs (2004) and Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2006).
Distance to neighbouring SLAs: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002).
Estimated internal travel: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002) and core data provided by DoHA.
Population and Attributes, and Socio-economic index: Australian Bureau of Statistics (1997); Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002).
Other Medical Services Data:
o Hospitals, hospital beds, emergency departments: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(2000), last accessed
16 October 2007, APN Business Information Group (2005) and for other relevant years.
o Nursing home beds:
Other data :
o Crude death rates: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005): data available on request. o Concession cards: Data provided by Department of Family and Community Services and
Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2006) and other relevant years.
o SLA area: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002).
o Population density: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002; Australian Bureau of Statistics
(2004).
o Private schools:
Commonwealth of Australia (1996–2000)
o Workers by area: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002).
Table 3.4: Annual data for variables used over time only
Year Total Number of GPs (headcount) Rebate for Standard consultation Unemployment rate (Australia*) (AWE and
OMP adjusted) (Australia*) %
1996 24,451 $20.48 8.1 1997 24,378 $19.78 8.2 1998 24,203 $19.07 7.9 1999 24,205 $18.72 6.8 2000 24,251 $18.52 6.2 2001 24,288 $18.44 6.9 2002 24,284 $18.68 6.5 2003 24,292 $18.00 6.2
*NOTE : State level unemployment rates and GP numbers used in modelling.
Source :
Headcount of GPs: Department of Health and Ageing
last
accessed 16 October 2007.
Rebate: Biggs (2004) and Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2006) and other years.
Unemployment: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006b). Table 3.5: Selected annual totals
Year GP per 1000 population Services per capita Services per GP Bulk billing rate (%) Percent of GPs female Average gross fee charged per service* Average annual total fees charged per GP * 1996 1.18 5.52 4,698 80.65 32.02 $24.45 $114,870 1997 1.16 5.46 4,710 80.30 32.42 $23.85 $112,338 1998 1.15 5.40 4,706 79.55 33.09 $23.21 $109,210 1999 1.13 5.28 4,651 79.30 33.61 $23.12 $107,545 2000 1.12 5.15 4,581 78.33 34.00 $23.32 $106,852 2001 1.12 5.07 4,552 76.24 34.81 $23.88 $108,700 2002 1.11 4.92 4,447 72.04 35.55 $24.69 $109,815 2003 1.10 4.73 4,322 67.59 35.97 $24.51 $105,927 * Dollar values indexed to 1996 prices using AWE adjustment
3.8 Conclusion
The purpose of this chapter was to explain the diverse sources and composition of data used in the analyses which follow. The core information is small area Medicare data, which has been used by previous researchers, but always in a cross-sectional manner. Previous Australian studies of GP supply and demand have mainly either used
postcodes (Connelly 1999), which comprise very small areas and are likely to suffer more from the border crossing than the SLAs used in this thesis, or have used SSDs (Richardson 2001), which means that many fewer observations are available. The data available here for the first time permit use of panel data techniques to address changes in the Australian GP market.
The other data sources show the diversity of information available for use in aggregate analyses, with the census data being central but a range of other variables of relevance to the GP market also able to be accessed. While other researchers have also drawn on census data and ad hoc data sources as has been done in this study, this is the most
comprehensive data set compiled to date for a study of this nature.
Based on the structure of the data which are available for this study, Chapter 4 describes the methodology to be applied to analyse the data, including the basic specification of all the models used.