A Decade of Australian General Practice Activity 2006-07 to 2015-16

This report highlights changes in general practice activity over the decade from April 2006 to March 2016 measured by the University of Sydney’s BEACH program, a continuous study of general practice activity in Australia. The BEACH program closed in 2016, after 18 years of continuous data collection.Over the decade, 9,721 general practitioners (GPs) provided details of 972,100 GP–patient encounters. The report highlights changes in the characteristics of GPs and the patients they see, the problems managed and the treatments provided. Changes in prevalence of measured risk factors (overweight, obesity, smoking and at-risk alcohol use) are described for sub-samples of more than 30,000 adult patients each year. Changes in the prevalence of overweight and obesity over the decade are also described for annual sub-samples of more than 2,500 children aged 2–17 years.This report is a companion to the annual report General Practice Activity in Australia 2015–16.