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The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners logoLink to The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
. 1982 Sep;32(242):564–566.

The doctor's deputizing service in a single-handed practice

A S Naidoo
PMCID: PMC1972696  PMID: 7143319

Abstract

The out-of-hours calls received by a doctor's deputizing service on behalf of a single-handed general practitioner were studied over the course of one year.

It was found that the overall rate of call (66.3 per 1,000 patients per year) and the rate of night call (10 per 1,000 patients per year) differed little from the rates found by general practitioners who did their own out-of-hours calls. The main users of the service were children under five and women. The time when the service was used least was between 23.00 and 07.00.

It is concluded that employing a deputizing service did not necessarily increase the rate of out-of-hours calls, but that the rate was influenced by the age/sex structure of the practice list. The most economical time to employ the service was found to be from 23.00 to 07.00.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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