GPs' attendance at courses is driven by finance, not learning needs

The 1990 contract for general practitioners included an educational allowance paid for attending accredited courses. Murray and Campbell assessed the attendance at accredited courses by practitioners in the west of Scotland in 1991-6 (p 353). Practitioners could pay a yearly subscription and attend as many courses as they wished. Of the 1832 GPs in the region 1130 paid the single subscription in 1991 compared with only 796 in 1996: subscribers attended more sessions than non-subscribers. The number of meetings sponsored by drug companies rose from 121 in 1991 to 328, and attendance at these rose from 1.0 to 2.1 for subscribers and from 1.5 to 4.8 for non-subscribers. The authors conclude that financial considerations may affect doctors' choice of courses.


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