Family practice
-
Since the turn of the millennium, out-of-hours primary health care in The Netherlands has faced a substantial change from small locum groups towards large GP cooperatives. Improving the quality of care requires evaluation of patient satisfaction. ⋯ A reliable measure of patient satisfaction has been developed that can also be used for the comparison of GP cooperatives on an organizational level. Overall satisfaction was high, showing highest levels for home visit and lowest levels for telephone advice.
-
Continuity is thought to be important to GPs but the values behind this are unknown. ⋯ Personal continuity may offer important benefits to doctors and patients, but we do not know how unique its values are. In particular, it is not clear whether the same benefits can be achieved within teams, the level at which continuity is increasingly being provided. The relative advantages and limits of the different means of delivering continuity need to be better understood, before further policy changes that affect personal continuity are introduced.