IS THE POTENTIAL OF TEENAGE CONSULTATIONS BEING MISSED - A STUDY OF CONSULTATION TIMES IN PRIMARY-CARE

There is a paucity of knowlege regarding teenage health even though it features as one of the priority areas in the government's health plan s. there have been few reports of adolescent contacts with primary car e teams, although there are impressions of a suboptimal service. As a prelude to understanding more about communication between general prac titioners and teenage patients, this study aimed to look at the time s pent on teenage consultations, which can be used as one method of desc ribing the quality of care provided to teenage patients. Nine-hundred consultations involving six doctors in one surgery were timed over a 3 month period by one observer using a validated method. One-hundred an d nineteen consultations with patients aged 11-19 were compared with t he 781 consultations for other age groups and showed a statistically s ignificant mean shortfall of nearly 2 minutes (23%). This trend was co nfirmed for all six doctors, despite a broad range of average consulti ng times. The study also demonstrated some other characteristics of te enage consultations. Several implications of these results are discuss ed as well as possible reasons for these findings. The study emphasize s the need for further research in this area.