ADR Wales News. Published 29/10/2025
New research from the ADR Wales Health and Well-being team has looked at aspects of how rural communities access primary care services in Wales.
The pilot study, which was carried out in collaboration with Rural Health and Care Wales (RHCW), investigated inequalities in rural primary healthcare accessibility using linked administrative data. The study examined the validity of anecdotal evidence, suggesting that individuals do not always register with their nearest surgery and quantifying distances travelled to GP surgeries in rural Wales.
The research centred on an analysis of geographical data, linking residential addresses with GP locations using Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to calculate shortest road distances between the home and primary care location. The study compared two groups: individuals registered to GP surgeries in Mid Wales, a rural area, and those registered to GP surgeries in urban areas of Wales. This comparative approach aimed to understand aspects of access to primary care, including GP surgery registration behaviours. Additionally, to showcase the utility of the SAIL Databank, health and demographic profiles were created for all groups.
Findings highlight significant differences in the distances travelled for care, with rural residents on average travelling greater distances for healthcare services. Results showed that overall, 63% of individuals within the study group registered with their nearest GP surgery, compared to 45% in the urban comparator group. On average those in the rural study group travelled four kilometres further than those in the urban areas, and those in the more sparsely populated areas travelling nearly six kilometres further.
Speaking on the study, Anna Prytherch, Head of Rural Health and Care Wales, said: “This work by the ADR Wales team has been instrumental in providing foundational data upon which we can build our review of GP and Primary Care services across rural Mid Wales. Supporting the distance travelled information, which confirms the inequitable access to healthcare faced by rural residents, the broad health overview of our populations living in Mid Wales could also provide pivotal data for future research when seeking to quantify health impact on new health and care interventions and / or demographic and environmental changes. The potential significance of this work is therefore considerable.”
Rhodri Johnson, ADR Wales Health and Well-being Research Officer, noted: “This was an interesting cross-team project which allowed us to showcase the flexibility of the SAIL Databank by safely combining geospatial and health data whilst supporting the work of RHCW towards positively impacting health and wellbeing in rural areas of Wales.”