STABILITY OF ATTENDANCE IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Data on the attendances of all patients at three general practices in Western Australia for two 6-month periods 11 months apart were collect ed as part of a previous study. The present study examined the stabili ty of the attendance patterns of the patients over the two study perio ds in terms of number of patients, number of visits and diagnoses. The patients who attended in both study periods were classified into four attendance groups: low to low; low to high; high to low; and high to high. The age, sex and diagnoses for each were compared. The results s howed that whilst the patient populations remained constant over the t wo periods, these populations were not comprised of the same patients. Only 45% of those who attended in the first 6 months also attended in the second. Similarly, whilst 8% of patients in each study period wer e classified as high attenders, only 22% of the high attenders in the first period were also high attenders in the second. The long-term hig h attenders were older and suffered from chronic diagnoses. The short- term high attenders were found to suffer from more self-limiting disea ses and conditions such as depression and pregnancy.