Medical audit. General practitioner obstetrics in a small rural hospital

A study is made of the outcome of 298 pregnancies supervised by the general practitioners in the Hokianga special area medical service over the six years from January 1974 to December 1979. Of the 87.9 percent delivered at the obstetric unit a Hokianga Hospital 90 percent were normal deliveries, which is a higher than usual proportion. The transfer rates for women in labour and for neonates were acceptably low. The perinatal mortality rte for this period was 10 per 1000 live births which compares well with the 1976 rate for Northland of 17.3 per 1000. It is concluded that, in addition to having a high patient acceptance, general practice obstetrics can provide a very high standard of care. Some of the reasons for this are discussed.