[Relationship between primary care and neurological care]

The problems posed by health care are related to health service structure and development. The transformation of a three level care structure into one of just two levels, primary care and specialized care, plays its part. With the aim of analyzing the importance these factors might have in present-day health care, we carried out an aleatoric study of all those patients who attended our neurological service in the years 1992 and 1993. We obtained two sample groups consisting of 921 and 849 patients respectively through interconsultatory requests from practitioners within a limited health care area. We studied the patient's background, the requesting practitioner, diagnosis obtained and complementary tests used. Patients from individual practitioners varied in number from 4 to 38, with some 20% of all patients having been referred by just six practitioners. 20% of the patients we studied showed no neurological pathology. Complementary tests used in all diagnoses sent to us amounted to less than half the number of patients studied. We analyzed the importance these factors have in the present delay in health care services.