ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broader perspective on the trends identified in the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2) on the workload of Dutch general practitioners (GPs) by comparing these patterns with the experience of general practice in the UK. It examines changes in the workload of general practitioners in the UK over the last 25 years and compares these changes to some of the evidence from the second national Dutch survey of general practice. General practice as an occupation and branch of medicine traditionally had a relatively high level of job satisfaction and was at its peak during the 1980s when general practice was experiencing rapid growth in its professional development. The plethora of organisational changes in primary care, at least in the UK, may have brought with them an increased administrative and managerial burden and a reduction in professional and clinical autonomy, manifested in the introduction of clinical governance.
