Patient and practice characteristics of primary care groups vary widely

Primary care groups are taking on increasing responsibility for monitoring the health of their population, commissioning health services, and meeting government targets. On p 1057, Majeed et al describe how methods for producing comparative data on general practices can be adapted to produce similar data on primary care groups. Primary care groups have very different baseline patient and general practice characteristics. There were strong associations between hospital admission rates for primary care groups and measures of chronic illness and deprivation. Differences in the patient and practice characteristics of primary care groups need to be taken into account when measuring the performance of primary care groups and their progress towards government targets.

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Relevant Article

Cross sectional study of primary care groups in London: association of measures of socioeconomic and health status with hospital admission rates

Azeem Majeed, Martin Bardsley, David Morgan, Caoimhe O'Sullivan, and Andrew B Bindman
BMJ 2000 321: 1057-1060. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]