Survey finds wide disparity in GP fees

People over 65 can pay anywhere between $10 and $69 to visit the doctor, a Herald survey of nearly 90 GP practices has found.

The telephone survey, which included practices from Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, looked at the cost of going to the doctor for children under 6 and people over 65.

It found nearly all practices provided services free to children under 6, but two charged $6.

For patients who were not registered with the primary health organisation (PHO), the charges were significantly higher. Children under 6 were charged between $5 and $28, with a standard charge of about $10.

People can only enrol with one PHO.

Those over 65 could pay up to $69 for their first visit to a practice where they were not enrolled but charges dropped to half that amount once they were registered.

Most people in this age group paid $20 to $25.

Herald staff found out the charges by ringing clinics and asking how much a visit would cost. They posed as patients because the paper's previous attempt at a formal survey met strong resistance.

"GPs think, 'Why should I give information that's going to be used to criticise what I do?'," said Mark Wills, chief executive of the three ProCare PHOs in Auckland.

Comparing fees might be unfair, he said, because consultation lengths and nurse involvement varied.

The Consumers Institute surveyed more than 800 practices this year but chief executive David Russell said the results were pulled from its website after errors were found - "a tiny fraction, but enough for the doctors to just wade into us".

Some GPs also complained about the publishing of their listed fees as these excluded discounts given to many patients, Mr Russell said, but he added that such a two-tier system was "almost misleading" and could breach the Fair Trading Act.

After surveying GPs, primary care management group South Link Health said the average advertised fee for over-64s was $25.57, but visits actually cost $15.31 on average.