Background
It is widely assumed that the Private Health Sector in South Africa caters only for
the 16% of the population who can afford to belong to a Medical Aid. However, a
number of patients who consult private general practitioners self-fund their health
expenses because they do not belong to a Medical Aid. This study measured the
proportion of Medical Aid as compared to the Non-Medical Aid encounters in
private general practice and the nature and cost of the encounters and medical
management differences between these two groups.
Methodology
This is a prospective, descriptive study of patient encounters with private general
practitioners in the Johannesburg Inner City during the month of March 2002. The
details of each patient encounter were recorded anonymously onto a data capture
sheet by the participating doctor.
Findings
A response rate of 94% was achieved when thirty-three general practitioners out
of 35 agreed to participate. The study population consisted of 3652 encounters,
comprising 53.7% (1961) Non-Medical Aid and 46.3% (1691) Medical Aid
encounters.