OBJECTIVES To estimate, overall and by organism, the incidence of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community, presenting to general practice (GP) and reported to national surveillance. DESIGN Prospective, community cohort study and prospective study of GP presentation conducted between April 2008 and August 2009. SETTING Eighty-eight GPs across the UK recruited from the Medical Re...

BACKGROUND Minor ailment attendances in general practices and emergency departments (EDs) place significant burden on health care resources. OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence and type of minor ailment consultations for adults in general practice and ED that could be managed in a community pharmacy. METHODS Retrospective review of routine data from general practices (n = 2) and one ED in...

Background The paper presents the results of community consultations about the health needs and healthcare experiences of the population of Ukraine. The objective of community consultations is to engage a community in which a research project is studying, and to gauge feedback, criticism and suggestions. It is designed to seek advice or information from participants directly affected by the stu...

BACKGROUND Community health service center (CHSC) and community health service station (CHSS) are the main institutions where general practitioners (GPs) deliver primary care in the urban area of China. Motivated by incentive policies, visits to community health service institutions (CHSIs) increased gradually in recent years, but concerns had been raised on the quality of general practice cons...

Background. The number of people residing in nursing homes has increased. General practitioners (GPs) receive an increased capitation fee for elderly patients in recognition of their higher consultation rate. However, there is no distinction between elderly patients residing in nursing homes and those in the community. Aim. To determine whether nursing home residents receive greater general pra...

A survey of the management of eye disease in the community was carried out in two general practices over a three-month period. During this time there were 238 consultations by patients with ocular symptoms, making up 2.3% of all consultations and giving an annual consultation rate for eye disease of 66 per 1000 persons at risk. The four commonest diagnoses were bacterial conjunctivitis, allergi...

In the United Kingdom, the influenza A(H1N1) 2009 pandemic had a distinct two-wave pattern of general practice consultations for influenza-like illness (ILI). We describe the epidemiology of the influenza pandemic in Wales between April and December 2009 using integrated data from a number of independent sources: GP surveillance, community virology surveillance, hospital admissions and deaths, ...

BACKGROUND Bladder cancer (BC) has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers. The objective of this study was to characterize the use of health-care services and costs associated with BC among patients who underwent radical cystectomy (RC) in the province of Quebec. METHODS We conducted a descriptive study in a retrospective cohort of patients who underwent RC for BC bet...

Consumers are confident managing minor ailments through self-care, often self-medicating from a range of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines available from community pharmacies. To minimise risks, pharmacy personnel endeavour to engage in a consultation when consumers present with OTC enquiries however they find consumers resistant. The aim was to determine stakeholder perspectives regarding barri...

BACKGROUND Primary health care services are the most frequently used in the health care system. Consumer feedback on these services is important. Research in this area relates mainly to doctor-patient relationships which fails to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of primary health care. AIM A pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility of using a patient satisfaction questionnaire designe...