By MARK RAGG Australians like their GPs, think they give good service, even if it's not quite up to date, and think they earn about what they deserve, even if they haven't the foggiest about the money. Those are the bald findings of a survey of 1,000 people, half from the country, released yesterday by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the doctors' educational body. The survey is released at a time when the college is fighting Federal Government plans to break its monopoly on the training of GPs.
Most people surveyed have one doctor they consider their own.
Of those, more than 30 per cent said they were completely satisfied with their GP, and 85 per cent of respondents gave their regular GP a rating of eight out of 10 or better. This compares with only 43 per cent of people giving Medicare a rating of eight out of 10 or better. On pay, most thought GPs got the right amount, with the rest split between those seeing GPs as underpaid and those seeing them as overpaid. Most thought the Medicare rebate is about right. GPs almost universally believe they are underpaid.