WHAT MAKES GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS DO CHILD HEALTH SURVEILLANCE

The contribution of different general practitioner characteristics, vi ews, and experiences to the likelihood of their providing child health surveillance (CHS) was determined and their perceived training needs discovered. Family health service authority administrative data on the study population was combined with a postal questionnaire survey. Sub jects were all general practitioners in three district health authorit ies in the North West Thames region. There were striking differences b etween districts in the proportion of practitioners undertaking CHS. G eneral practitioners with paediatric training were three times more li kely to do CHS. Women doctors were twice as likely to do CHS as men. T he personal views of general practitioners were significantly associat ed with whether or not they undertook CHS. The CHS fee did not appear to be the major motivating factor. There was considerable demand for f urther training. The proportion of general practitioners undertaking C HS is likely to increase with the proportion of women and vocationally trained doctors. More local training is wanted, both by general pract itioners already doing CHS and by those who would like to do it. Healt h authorities need to ensure that such training is convenient and cont inuing.