There has been very little change in the proportion of NHS GP consultations for 2000 compared with those reported in 1998. In 2000, 16% of females and 12% of males reported consulting a GP during the 14 days prior to interview. As in previous years, the difference between men and women was particularly marked in the 16 to 44 age group. Women in this age group were twice as likely to report consulting a GP compared with men of the same age, 16% and 8% respectively. Consultations by women of this age related to birth control or pregnancy are likely to account for at least some of this difference.

• The likelihood of having consulted a GP was highest for adults aged 65 and over.
• The average number of consultations per year was the same as in 1998; 4 for males and 5 for females.

Trend data show a reduction in the number of NHS GP consultations which take place at home, and an increase in surgery and phone consultations. In 1971, 22% of consultations took place in the home, whereas in 2000 only 5% took place in the home, although there was no significant difference between 1998 (6%) and 2000. In 1971, 73% of consultations took place in the surgery, but by 2000 this figure had increased to 86%. GP consultations over the phone have shown an increase over time, which might be expected as phone ownership has increased (see Table 4.23). In 1971 only 4% of GP consultations took place over the phone, at a time when less than half of households owned a phone. During the 1980s and early 1990s between 6% and 8% of GP consultations took place over the phone. The figure in 1998 and 2000 was 10%.

Table 7.21 presents the percentage of consultations by site of consultation, and Table 7.22 shows the percentage of people consulting a doctor by site of consultation. The distribution within each table was fairly similar and the following figures refer to Table 7.21. The older age groups were substantially more likely to be seen by an NHS GP at home, than the younger age groups. For those aged under 65, GP consultations took place at home 1% to 2% of the time, while for those aged between 65 and 74, the figure was 9%, and for those aged 75 and over the figure was 23%. One reason for this may be because it is more difficult for older people to get to the surgery. Telephone consultations were most likely to be made for the under fives (17% compared with between 7% and 11% for other age groups).

Respondents living in households where the household reference person was in one of the manual socio-economic groups were more likely than those in non-manual households to have consulted an NHS GP in the two weeks prior to interview; 13% of males and 17% of females had done so, compared with 11% of males and 15% of females in non-manual households. Comparison within each age and sex group showed this relationship was only statistically significant for men aged 45 to 64, which may be due to some extent to the smaller sample sizes. There was no significant difference in the average number of consultations per year when analysed by socio-economic group of household reference person.

Respondents living in households where the household reference person was in the manual socio-economic groups were more likely to receive a prescription than those where the household reference person was in a non-manual group.

Economically inactive men were more than twice as likely as men who were working or who were unemployed to have consulted an NHS GP in the last fortnight, 20% compared with 9%. The proportion of economically inactive women who had consulted a GP was higher than that of women who were working or unemployed, but the difference was less marked than among men, and the difference between unemployed and economically inactive women was not statistically significant.

As in previous years, only a small percentage of GP consultations were with private doctors: 3% of all consultations.