EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ACCESS TO THE FAMILY PAEDIATRICIAN

Key words: Family paediatrician, Primary care, Ambulatory care

Two family paediatricians describe the epidemiology of the access to their paediatric practices, located in the Veneto Region. Accesses during 1997 were 4657 and 5212 with an average number of accesses per child per year of 5,3 and 6,1 respectively. Among factors influencing access, younger age was the most important followed by season. Organizational features and distance did not seem to influence access. Almost 30% of accesses were due to burocratic reasons and only 10% for preventive advice. Heavy users were predominantly young children of the preschool age affected by recurrent respiratory infections. Non-users were 9% of the total. Most of them were older children with no perceived health problems, while about 1/4 of them did probably prefere alternative providers. The Authors point out to the need of reorienting the demand to make the use of the NHS family paediatrician more effective.