Older Australians' Expectations of their Interactions with their GPs

This article reports thefindings ofa study into olderAustralians' expectations when interactingwith theirgeneralpractitioners (GPs). Sixfocus groups anda national telephone suroey (n=505)were conducted to identify those aspects of interactions ~th GPs considered to be the mostimportant and relevant to olderpeople. The results indicate that the three most important issuesrelate to ability of GPs to: (1) provide prompt referrals to specialists and ensure an ongoinginformation flow between GPs and specialists (2) remain abreast of new developments ingeriatric and general medicine, and (3) demonstrate a familiarity with the patient's medicalhistory. These issues were considered important to olderpatients in generaland to be ofpersonalrelevance to the large majority ofthose sampled.