Primary care teams and the elderly in Northern Ireland

The results of a questionnaire were used to examine how primary care workers set about the management and surveillance of their elderly patients. The majority of practices had attached visitors (76 per cent) and attached district nurses (59 per cent), while 61 per cent of general practitioners worked in health centres. Over half of the responding practices had agesex registers. Few of the practices (14 per cent) had screened their elderly patients in the last five years and maintained an ;at-risk' register. Twenty per cent of practices held a regular meeting concerning their elderly patients but only half of these reviews involved the available health visitors and district nurses.At least half of the general practitioners and district nurses plus three quarters of the health visitors felt dissatisfied with the care of the elderly.A single and systematic review of elderly patients conducted jointly by general practitioners, health visitors and district nurses would do much to improve the care of this group of patients and the morale of these workers.