Paediatric medical outpatients: are all those reviews necessary?

The value of and need for paediatric outpatient review attendance as perceived by parents, children, consultants, and general practitioners (GPs) were assessed. One hundred and ninety one parents of 239 children over 7 years of age undergoing review were randomly selected for a semistructured interview. For each parent interviewed, an audit questionnaire was completed after case note review by another paediatrician. A random sample of the patients' GPs was surveyed by postal questionnaire. Twenty per cent of parents and 26% of GPs felt that the GP could care for the child as well as or better than the hospital, whereas only 6% of consultants felt this to be so. Regarding future attendance of the child at the hospital, 48% of parents and 32% of GPs felt the child could either be discharged or seen when parents were worried, whereas consultants felt 24% of patients should have been discharged.