Small-area estimates of general practice workforce shortage in rural and remote Western Australia

Objective: To trial a measure of rural and remote GPaccess for small areas.Design: A cross-sectional study using geographicalinformation systems software to calculate GP to populationrates with a floating catchment of 100 km radiusaround census collection districts (CCDs).Setting: Non-metropolitan Western Australia.Participants: The locations and full-time equivalents ofGPs and other primary-care doctors were identifiedthrough a GP workforce survey.Main outcome measures: GP to population ratios foreach CCD were classified as being above or below abenchmark of adequate GP access. CCDs with no GPsessions reported within 100 km were identified separately.These categories were investigated by divisions ofgeneral practice and by indigenous status, age andemployment characteristics of the population.Results: Small-area estimates detected greater variationin access than depicted by conventional methods. Sixtyfourper cent of the non-metropolitan population livein CCDs with adequate GP access. Forty-five per centof indigenous people and 52% of people working inrural industries live in CCDs with access below thebenchmark.Conclusions: The floating catchment method is a powerfultool to identify small areas of inadequate service.It can be applied to measure access to other professionals,medical equipment or facilities.