Hospital board extramural services

A hospital board has an obligation to provide services in the community but it is essential that those extramural services act in collaboration with and not in competition with all other services in the community. In particular, it is essential that we maintain the primacy of general practice and in return the general practitioner must accept full responsibility for the care of his patients in their homes, rehabilitation and encouraging the maximum possible independence on the part of the patients and their families must be the constant theme of the extramural services.