Morbidity, Performance and Quality in Primary Care: Dutch General Practice on Stage

Citation

(2006), "Morbidity, Performance and Quality in Primary Care: Dutch General Practice on Stage", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 19 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2006.06219eae.003

Morbidity, Performance and Quality in Primary Care: Dutch General Practice on Stage

Morbidity, Performance and Quality in Primary Care: Dutch General Practice on StageEdited by Gert P. Westert, Lea Jabaaij and François G. SchellevisRadcliffe OxfordISBN 1 84619 053 3

This book is based on the findings of a nationwide study, the aim of which was to analyse general practitioners’ performance as gatekeepers of the Dutch healthcare system. The study was undertaken along six themes: the health of the population; inequalities in health; utilisation of care; quality of care; communication; organisation and workload. Morbidity, Performance and Quality in Primary Care involves 400,000 patients; 1.5 million recorded GP-patient contacts and 2.1 million drug prescriptions.

This survey appears at a timely moment. It coincides with the recent interest in primary care arising not only from the growing importance of cost containment in healthcare, but also from the now firmly established association between the life expectancy of a population and the existence of a strong primary care sector. The international interest in the Dutch situation is reflected in several chapters, where experts from all over the world put Dutch general practice into an international perspective.

Contents include:

• •

  The Dutch health care system: how are we organised?

• •

  Morbidity in the population and in general practice.

• •

  A comparison of disease prevalence in general practice in The Netherlands and in England and Wales.

• •

  The activities of general practitioners: are they still gatekeepers?

• •

  Changes in the workload of general practitioners in the UK.

• •

  Communication in general practice.

• •

  Quality of primary care.

• •

  Quality of GP-care from the patients’ perspective: facts, trends and differences.

• •

  Activities of the general practitioner: are they important?

• •

  Health status of the elderly in the future: demography, epidemiology and prevention.