Prioritizing services: GPs' views, fundholders versus non-fundholders

Aims to assess the level of agreement between priorities of service provision in 20 discrete clinical areas, as laid out in a district health authority (DHA) purchasing plan, and the views of GPs in the catchment area of that authority and to test for a statistically significant difference between the views of fundholding and non-fundholding GPs. A 74 per cent response rate was achieved, and analysis suggested that local GPs' views were broadly in line with their DHA strategy, and that a significant difference existed between the views of fundholders and non-fundholders in only one treatment area, namely that of lithotripsy. Concludes that the postal questionnaire is a cheap and easy method of assessing the views of GPs on prioritizing issues. As yet there is little difference between fundholding and non-fundholding GPs in this area of decision making.