The good news is that most patients, 60 percent in fact, felt appropriately “connected” to their primary care physician.

However, that leaves a significant 40 percent who were not.

According to a recent study, patients who were not connected were less likely to received recommended preventive care and other screening tests.

Which all comes as no surprise. Not only is it increasingly difficult to find a new primary Read more »

Are cash-only medical practices only limited to the wealthy?

When you think about it, how much care does the average patient really need? Over at Better Health, Val Jones writes that 75 percent of patients require an average of 3.5 office visits annually for all the medical care they need. That works out to about 1 hour of a physician’s time per year.

How much is that worth? Well, the going rate is about $300. For a year. Read more »

Do most surgeons think mid-level providers can replace primary care physicians?

That much was implied during recent testimony by the American College of Surgeons’ John Preskitt, who said, “With trauma care and surgical emergencies, there are no good substitutes or physician extenders for a well-trained general surgeon or surgical specialist.”

The ACP’s Bob Doherty took that to mean that there were good substitutes for primary Read more »

At the GPC monthly meeting last week, members voted unanimously in favour of a motion deploring the move.

As the vote was announced, NHS Connecting for Health announced it had issued guidance to PCTs involved in piloting the record system making clear patients ‘do not need to appear in person in order to opt out’.

The GPC motion says: ‘The GPC condemns any PCT or government organisation which requires Read more »

Family doctors are doing less obstetric care these days.

As reported by MedPage Today, a study shows that the number of prenatal visits seen by family physicians declined from 11.6% to 6.1% from 1994 to 2004, and perhaps of more concern, 38.6% to 12.9% in rural areas.

It’s not a huge surprise, since these days, obstetricians have absorbed most of the maternity cases. One reason is that hospitals are less likely to pay the high Read more »

Such data is lacking across most of the NHS, except in GP practices, where already available information can be used to look at issues such as whether preventive care for long-term conditions should have been provided.

The commission, which is to merge into the newly created health, social care and mental health regulator the Care Quality Commission in April, has been involved in a project to look at how GP data collection can be Read more »

About 400 more people died at Mid Staffordshire Hospital between 2005 and 2008 than would be expected, according to the Healthcare Commission.

The commission said it was impossible to blame all the extra deaths on the hospital’s care but some would have died as a result.

The report, to be published tomorrow, says: ‘The clinical management of many patients admitted as emergencies fell short of an acceptable standard Read more »

Every adult patient with the disease will be given a personal folder, My Kidney Care Plan, which will also allow them to discuss in detail their needs and concerns with a specialist nurse or GP.

It is hoped that the personal folder will empower patients to manage their own condition, as well as improving standards of care for kidney disease.

Dr O’Donoghue, said: ‘This is a new, holistic approach to patients Read more »

If both patients and doctors don’t accept the changes required of their behavior, no amount of comparative effectiveness studies will cut health care spending.

Two prominent medical journalists write as much in their respective blogs.

First, the NY Times’ Tara Parker-Pope notes that patients have to realize that, yes, they should demand the best care possible. However, that means, “we will have to accept that ‘best’ doesn’t Read more »

The 80m will also provide more training for staff in primary healthcare teams, helping them to recognise mental health problems that could be due in part to the economic downturn.

The announcement includes pledging an extra 13m to speed up the roll out of talking therapies around England with services beginning to be available in 2010.

Employment support workers will be linked to every talking therapy service, providing Read more »