Family practice
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Non-specific neck pain is a common complaint in general practice. Little is known about GPs' experiences of managing non-specific neck pain. ⋯ In the case of non-specific neck pain, GPs often feel confronted with patients that demand dubious therapies and fail to consider psychological influences. The prescription of non-evidence-based therapies or referrals does not necessarily reflect a lack of knowledge but the GPs' strategic decision to improve the doctor-patient relationship.
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There are several assumptions within clinical practice about who is more or less likely to consult a health care practitioner for particular symptoms, most commonly these focus around socio-demographic characteristics. We aimed to assess the evidence for the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on consultation for back pain. ⋯ The results from this review suggest that there is little evidence to support the common wisdom that socio-demographic characteristics impact on help-seeking in the context of back pain. As these assumptions relating to who is more or less likely to consult will ultimately affect patient care, it is important that they do not go unchallenged.
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Out-of-hours services for primary care provision are increasing in policy relevance. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore service users' recent experiences of out-of-hours services and to identify suggestions for improvement for services and practitioners involved. ⋯ It is important to consider ways to address service users' principal concerns surrounding out-of-hours services. Debate is required about prioritizing and implementing potential improvements to out-of-hours services in the light of resource constraints.
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Within the UK, patients place a fairly high value on the out-of-hours GP home visiting service. Although satisfaction with the range of out-of-hours services has been found to be high, little is known about patients' specific experiences of the home visiting services. ⋯ Although the OOH services have received considerable criticism over the past 5 years, this study reveals that patients remain largely satisfied with the service and would have called 999 or gone directly to hospital if there had been no service.
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The irrational use of drugs was a global problem, especially in developing countries. However, there are no studies available on irrational use of drugs in rural Western China. ⋯ The study provides some evidence of irrational use of drugs to a great extent in rural areas of Western China. Overuse of injection and overuse of antibiotics were the most prominent manifestations of such irrational drug prescribing.