New referrals, a decreasing phenomenon in 1971-94: analysis of registry data in the Netherlands

Abstract
We calculated mean referrals and total numbers of new episodes of illness in five periods, standardised for age (in 10 year age categories) and sex distribution of the population in the period 1971-5. Clinical specialties were grouped as: surgical (general surgery, orthopaedics, urology, gynaecology, reconstructive surgery, cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, oral surgery); senses and skin (otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, dermatology); internal medicine (general internal medicine, cardiology, respiratory medicine, rheumatology, gastroenterology, haematology, nephrology, endocrinology); and other (paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, radiotherapy, rehabilitation medicine, geriatrics, anaesthesiology).