General practitioner's care of the elderly: studies of aspects of workload

This paper reports trends in the volume and nature of general practitioners' contacts with the elderly patients on their NHS lists in Dundee during the 1970s. It forms part of a larger project involving 32 general practitioners collaborating in a continuing study concerning the introduction of the first health centre in Dundee.During the decade contacts with the elderly increased as a proportion of the general practitioners' total work, broadly commensurate with the increase in Dundee's elderly population. Indirect contacts, mainly reissue of prescriptions for longterm medication, showed a greater proportional increase than direct consultations. Home visiting of the elderly remained relatively constant, while house calls to other age groups declined. Hospital referrals remained a small proportion of the general practitioners' work. Entry into a health centre was not associated with obvious changes in patterns of workload.If more might be done in planning and implementing changes in care of the elderly at general practice level, such changes should be the result of consensus among the professionals concerned, and should take account of the views of recipients of care.