How many general practitioners for 1433 patients?
BMJ 1995; 310 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.310.6972.100 (Published 14 January 1995) Cite this as: BMJ 1995;310:100
- Scott A Murray, lecturer in general practicea,
- Lesley J C Graham, senior registrar in public health medicineb,
- Maria J Dlugolecka, consultant in public health medicineb
- a Mackenzie Medical Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9DX
- b Lothian Health, Edinburgh EH8 9RS
- Correspondence to: Dr Murray.
- Accepted 21 July 1994
Dumbiedykes, in Lothian, is an inner city council estate of 670 homes in Edinburgh. About half of the residents are registered at the Mackenzie Medical Centre. We ascertained the total number of general practitioners and partnerships with patients living in Dumbiedykes and determined the number of patients registered with each practice.
Method and results
We obtained from the community health index, which lists all patients registered with general practitioners in Scotland, the 12 postcodes of Dumbiedykes and the name of each resident's general practitioner. We summarised this list of patients according to each patient's general practitioner and grouped the patients into practices using a list of Lothian general practitioners by practice.
In all, 1433 patients were registered in Dumbiedykes in 1993. The population of Dumbiedykes is relatively stable (only 7% of households had moved there in …