§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is the average patient list for general practitioners in parish council areas and for that part of Warrington situated in the Newton constituency; and how this compares with the average in the North West Region and the national average;
(2) what is the average patient list for general practitioners in Golborne, Wigan; 209W and how this compares with the average for the North West Region and the national average;
(3) what is the average patient list for general practitioners in Haydock, Merseyside; and how this compares with the average in the North West Region and the national average.
§ Dr. OwenThe average patient list for family doctors practising in parishes in that part of the Warrington district within the Newton constituency was 2,902 at 1st April 1974. The corresponding averages on the same date in Golborne, Wigan, and Haydock, Merseyside, were 2,944 and 2,617, respectively.
The latest available averages for the North West Region and for England are 2,481 and 2,398 patients per practitioner, respectively, at 1st October 1973.
§ Mr. Molloyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average number of patients on the lists of family practitioners, the average annual rate of home visits and surgery consultations per patient between the ages of 5 and 55 years and the average time spent on each consultation.
§ Dr. OwenThe average number of patients on the lists of family doctors in England at 1st October 1973, the latest available date, was 2,398.
Health service authorities do not keep statistics of the frequency and duration of consultations with family doctors. Such data as are available are based on small numbers of practices whose pattern of work is not necessarily representative.
In the 53 practices included in the 1970–71 National Morbidity Survey the average annual rate of consultation for patients between the ages of 5 and 65 was 2.79–2.27 for males and 3.30 for females.
In the 14 practices covered by a recent report of the Royal College of General Practitioners (Present state and future needs of general practice, 1973), the frequency of home visits for all ages of patients ranged in 1971 from 0.1 to 3.2 per person. The same report gives consultation times, based on other data, ranging from 5.2 to 6.6 minutes for surgery consultations and from 12.7 to 17.7 minutes for those which take place in the home.