General practitioners' access to x ray services

Communication problems between dementia carers and general practitioners: effect on access to community support services.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the circumstances that led general practitioners to refer dementia sufferers and their carers to community support services. DESIGN Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, carried out between 1 September 1999 and 30 April 2000. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 21 live-in carers of patients with dementia referred for the first time to a Western Australian metrop...

General practitioners’ views of psychological services: a comparison of general practitioners who refer to onsite and offsite services

General Practitioners (GPs) are typically the first point of contact for people with mental health problems accessing services. GPs’ referral patterns not only have a significant impact on the care received by individual patients, but also influence the development of mental health services as a whole via their impact on demand for services. Changes in NHS policy in the past two decades have me...

Survey of patients' satisfaction with access to general practitioners.

The north west England faculty patients' liaison group, supported by community health councils and family practitioner committees, surveyed patients' perceptions of accessibility to general practitioners in seven districts in 1985 and 1986. Findings on appointment systems, telephone access and out-of-hours calls are compared with those from other surveys. The results show that patients' satisfa...

Should general practitioners have access to paediatric cardiologists?

Open-access echocardiography to general practitioners for suspected heart failure.

Echocardiography is now considered to be the key investigation when heart failure is suspected, and should improve clinical management. An open-access echocardiography service was piloted to 24 general practitioners and the service was audited after 250 cases. The impact on clinical management was assessed by reviewing general practice notes 2 months after the echocardiogram. Significant impair...