The primary health care team : report / of a joint working group of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee and the Standing Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee.

  • Great Britain. Joint working group on the Primary Health Care Team.
Date:
1981
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The primary health care team : report / of a joint working group of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee and the Standing Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/76 (page 42)
    | ie health authorities should recognise that the problems of sparsely populated rural areas may make the provision of primary health care services more expensive pro rata than the provision of such services in urban areas, but that this additional expense must be accepted as the price of providing a comprehensive service to the community as a whole; ii. reciprocal arrangements in relation to the provision of district nursing and health visiting services between health authorities where large GP practices overlap authority boundaries should be negotiated; and iii. the possibility of encouraging voluntary zoning of GP practices to reduce the overall amount of travelling necessary should be considered by LMCs in consultation with CHCs. Declining Urban Areas 5.5 The large number of comments we received about the problems associated with effective team-working in declining urban areas indicates the serious-— ness with which the difficulties are viewed by those working in the field. We recognise that not all such areas have identical problems. The type and intensity varies from one to another. Inner London is perhaps unique in terms both of the intensity and diversity of its problems, and we™ welcome the formation by the London Health Planning Consortium of a study group on primary health care. Nevertheless these areas have enough common ground to warrant being considered together. We set out below some of the main problems associated with declining urban areas which affect the work— load of, and put pressure on, the primary health care team. We recognise that this is not exhaustive and that not all problems occur in all areas. Two main foci of problems emerged; the patient population and the provision of primary health care itself. 5.6 Analysis of the patient population indicates a generally higher level of need in declining urban areas, primarily resulting from environmental and economic factors such as: De low income — for instance a relevant comment by the Birmingham Inner Area Study Al was that: members of the lowest socio-economic groups are 3 times as likely to suffer chronic lasting illness as members of the higher professional groups; is poor environmental conditions, particularly in relation to housing —- most declining urban areas are characterised by high concentrations of either old, decaying houses or badly planned new provision, or both. The former is often associated with higher incidence of respiratory illness, the latter with more psychiatric illness and psychological problems;