ABSTRACT
Almost all individuals in the United Kingdom are registered with a National Health Service General Medical Practitioner (GP), who has a responsibility to provide their general medical care. The doctor and patient generally have a long term relationship, the practitioner providing continuing personal care to the patient and his or her family over many years, and frequently over generations. If a patient moves area and changes GP, his medical records will be transferred as well. This structure of defined lists of patients along with life long records lends itself well to research into chronic diseases, particularly their epidemiology and natural history. In this chapter I will look at the ideal structure of general practice based care for epilepsy, then examine some of the community research looking at the actual provision of care. I will also look at the research into patients' perceptions of the quality of their care and, finally, at how a strategy for improvement can be developed.
