White Papers

70,489 primary care encounters: retrospective analysis of morbidity at a primary care centre in Ireland - article
70,489 RFEs consultations were recorded (mean 13.53 recorded RFEs per person per annum) and consultations involving multiple RFEs were common. RFE categories for which codes were most commonly recorded were: ‘general/unspecified’ (31.6 %), ‘respiratory’ (15.4 %) and ‘musculoskeletal’ (12.6 %). Most commonly recorded codes were: ‘medication renewal’ (6.8 %), ‘cough’ (6.6 %), and ‘health maintenance/prevention’ (5.8 %). There was considerable variation in the number of RFEs recorded per age group. 6239 RFEs (8.9 %) were recorded by children under 6 years and 15,295 RFEs (21.7 %) were recorded by adults aged over 70. RFEs recorded per calendar month increased consistently through the study period and there was a marked seasonal and temporal variation in the number of RFEs recorded.

Are Irish Adult General Practice Consultation Rates as Low as Official Records Suggest? A Cross Sectional Study at Six General Practices - article
Accurate data on primary care activity is key to health services planning and reconfiguration. Official data estimate general practice adult consultation rates to be 3.2 visits annually, based on patient self reports. We aim to estimate the consultation rate using practice based data and compare this to official estimates. We interrogated six general practices’ information systems and estimated consultation rates based on practice, telephone, domiciliary and out of hours consultations by patients aged 18 years or older. The study population (20,706 patients) was representative of the national population in terms of age and GMS status. The mean consultation rate was 5.17, though this was higher among GMS-eligible patients and among older age groups. Estimates of consultation rates derived from practice based data are likely to be higher than that derived from other approaches. Using multiple sources of data will enhance accuracy of workload estimates and this will benefit service planning.

An audit of structured diabetes care in a general practice setting - download
The increasing prevalence of diabetes and the inability for acute models of care to manage this growing burden, exemplifies the need for chronic illness management programmes. The RHFP has been operating a structured diabetes care programme for over 15 years. The aim therefore, of this audit is to examine our diabetic population with a view to establishing baseline criteria for future research and to allow juxtaposition to current peer reviewed audits already published in the setting of Irish general practic.

Clinical audit of the management of patients in an anticoagulant primary care clinic in Ireland - download
Audit to assess standard of care provided to patients as determined by TTR (Rosendaal and point prevalence method) with the secondary objective to undertake an economic assessment of the model of care.


Reasons for Encounter by Dr. David Molony and Carl Beame - download
An analysis of two years of Reasons for Encounter based on GMS age categories Winner of Best Poster Prize at WONCA WORLD CONFERENCE PRAGUE 2013