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The Informal Rationing of Primary Medical Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Peggy Foster
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Abstract

All social services are rationed, yet the effects of such rationing on the client are rarely fully explored. This article reviews the evidence on the existence of informal rationing devices in general practice. It examines the effects on patients of a wide range of informal rationing devices now used by individual general practitioners. Various suggestions for reforming the present rationing of primary medical care are evaluated and the likelihood of any reform being carried out is assessed. Although this article concentrates solely on rationing in the primary care sector of the National Health Service, the issues discussed are relevant to most welfare agencies as they are presently organized.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 1979 , pp. 489 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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