General practice consultations in central and northern Finland

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Abstract
Objective - To examine general practice consultations in health centres in central and northern parts of Finland. Design - A questionnaire concerning all general practice consultations during one week. Setting - Central and northern parts of Finland in a region comprising 72% of the area of the country and one-third of its population. Participants - 851 health centre doctors. Outcome measures - Consultation rates by age and sex of the patients and by characteristics of doctors and their practices. Results - the average consultation rate per 1000 female inhabitants was 43 and per 1000 male inhabitants 34 per week. for total contacts, a J-shaped association with increasing age was demonstrated for both sexes. the average number of consultations per doctor in a week was 72. Consultation rates were lowest among physicians over 45 years of age. A low consultation rate was also found among general practitioners not participating in the personal doctor programme and among those who worked in municipalities with over 30 000 inhabitants. Conclusion - in Finland, consultation rates per 1000 inhabitants, as well as per general practitioner, are remarkably lower than in most European countries. the personal doctor programme with defined lists of patients seems to be associated with high consultation rates.

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