REASONS FOR REFERRAL FROM GENERAL-PRACTICE IN FINLAND

Objective - To examine the reasons for referral from general practice in Finland. Design - Survey over one week of all referrals from genera l practice. Setting - Central and northern Finland, comprising 72% of the area of the country and one-third of the population. Participants - 851 general practitioners (GPs) from public health centres. Outcome measures - Referrals by speciality and reasons for referrals by ICD-9 and ICPC codes in terms of characteristics of patients, GPs, and pract ices. Results - A higher proportion of male (39%) than female (33%) pa tients were referred to surgical speciality (p<0.001). Ten per cent of the patients referred by female GPs were referred to gynaecology depa rtments, compared with 5% of those referred by male GPs (p<0.001). Oti tis media in children and abdominal pain in adults were the commonest reasons for referral of both male and female patients. Conclusion - Ou r results will be useful in developing the training of GPs with respec t to those health problems that most commonly lead to a referral to ho spital.