Rural hospitals in New Zealand.
OBJECTIVE
To produce a list of New Zealand rural hospitals, including information on acute bed numbers, population served, average driving time to base hospital, and number and payment of rural hospital doctors.


METHODS
Information about rural hospitals was obtained from local doctors and/or administrators, and reflected conditions at June 15, 1998. A 'rural hospital' was defined as a facility with no resident medical specialists, where acutely ill patients are admitted and cared for solely by generalist doctors, either general practitioners or medical officers of special scale.


RESULTS
Varying definitions for acute 'facilities' and 'beds' made analysis difficult. There were a total of 36 'rural hospitals' in New Zealand at June 15, 1998 containing 293 acute beds and serving a population of about 340000. Patient care was provided by a total of 131 generalists (general practitioners or medical officers of special scale) equivalent to 40 full-time rural hospital doctors.


CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 10% of the New Zealand population are served by rural hospitals. Discrepancies exist between the list of rural hospitals provided in this study and that provided by the Government's recent 'Hospital Services Plan'.
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D006302:Health Services Research; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009520:New Zealand; D010067:Ownership / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011156:Population Density; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013997:Time Factors; D014195:Travel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data