§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of the population who regularly visit their general practitioner for each of the last 10 years. [11037]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 31 October 2001]: The information is not collected in the form requested. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes an estimate of the proportion of the population of Great Britain who consult a general practitioner within a 14 day period in their report "Living in Britain—Results from the General Household Survey". The table shows the estimate for each year for which figures are available from 1988.
Year Percentage consulted GP in last 14 days 1988 14 1989 15 1990 16 1991 14 1992 15 1993 17 1994 15 1995 16 1996 16 1998 14 Source:
ONS "Living in Britain—Results from the General Household Survey"
The survey was not carried out in 1997 or 1999 and the report for 2000 is expected in December.