Consultation patterns and frequent attenders in UK primary care from 2000 to 2019: a retrospective cohort analysis of consultation events across 845 general practices.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To describe the distribution of consultations at the practice level and examine whether increases are uniform or driven by people who consult more frequently.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

UK general practice data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD database.

Participants

1 699 709 314 consultation events from 12 330 545 patients, in 845 general practices (1 April 2000 to 31 March 2019).

Methods

Consultation information was aggregated by financial year into: all consultations/all staff; all consultations/general practitioners (GPs); face-to-face consultations/all staff; face-to-face consultations/GPs. Patients with a number of consultations above the 90th centile, within each year, were classified as frequent a

SUBMITTER: Kontopantelis E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8718478 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature