Which general practitioner requests cardiologic consultation

: Since health care costs continue to rise, the Regions and the Local Health Boards needs to draw up their plans, and permanent training initiatives must be undertaken for physicians, it was decided to see if and which personal and professional characteristics influence primary physicians in their requests for cardiological consultation. It is, in fact, well known that the attitudes of doctors not only affect the health of the population, but also the cost of such health to the community. Assessment of calls for heart examinations on the part of general practitioners attached to a local health board showed that neither age nor sex, nor the fact of working solely for the health service, nor the number of patients on a doctor's panel made any appreciable difference with respect to cardiological consultations. It was noted, however, that doctors whose only activity consisted of general practice under the health service called for fewer consultations than their colleagues with other activities, and that older physicians measured blood pressure less frequently and tended to give shorter descriptions of their findings to the cardiologist. The survey tended to show that the decision to send a patient to a cardiologist was probably more influenced by the characteristics of his complaint and his condition, and the medical attendant's clinical and psychological convictions than on such factors as age, sex, number of persons looked after, and working solely for the general health service.