ABSTRACT
One of the most dramatic changes in general practice between 1964 and 1977 was the increase in health centres. Figures from the DHSS Annual Reports for 1976 and 1977 show that in 1965 there were 28 health centres and 215 general practitioners practising in them. By 1977 these figures had risen to 731 and ‘about 3,800’ respectively. So in the earlier study health centre practice was too insignificant to make separate analysis feasible or appropriate. By 1977 the position was quite different and it is possible to compare the experience and views of both doctors and patients in health centre practice with those in other types of practice. Sixteen per cent of the general practitioners who took part in our survey said they did all their general practitioner work in a health centre owned by an Area Health Authority. Another 6% said they did part of their work in one. Data from the DHSS about our sample ofdoctors give rather lower proportions, 13% having a main surgery in a health centre, 2% a branch surgery. The discrepancies, which were nearly all in the same direction, may be due, in part at any rate, to different dates to which the information refers. A third of the patients thought their doctor worked in a health centre, but it seems likely that many of them confused a privately owned or leased group practice with a health centre. However, if a doctor replied that he worked in a health centre no patient disagreed. The information from the doctors themselves has generally been used in the following analyses, and our comparisons are between those who work in a health centre at all and those who work entirely outside one. In looking at doctors’ views of the advantages and disadvantages of health centres we have also considered the 15% of general practitioners who did not work in health centres at the time of the survey but said they would like to do so.
