Prescribing during the 28 days after the index consultation was slightly lower for patients in the communication skills training group.
The odds of receiving an HIV test are also the highest in urban areas, but the proportion undergoing an HIV test following an HIV-related consultation is slightly higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
Before the intervention, the mean amount spent for a consultation was slightly less than US$1 for children from poor households and around US$1.4 for the non-poor (difference not significant).
The odds of receiving an HIV-test is also highest in urban areas, but the proportion undergoing an HIV-test following an HIV-related consultation is slightly higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
Waiting times for emergency/acute consultations were on average shorter in FHUs, and the annual number of nursing consultations was slightly lower in FHUs.
The mean cost of hospitalisations was consequently lower with capecitabine than with 5-FU/LV (£399 vs £459), although the cost of physician consultations was slightly increased with capecitabine compared with 5-FU/LV (£154 vs £145).
This is in line with a recent study by van der Heijden et al. [ 30], which showed lower number of hospitalisations for diabetic patients in a managed care model compared with usual care (0.7 versus 2.7), whereas the mean number of consultations was slightly higher (7.6 versus 6.1).
Between year 1 and year 2, consultation rates fell slightly by a mean of 0.09 (SD, 1.33) in the switched cohort and by 0.35 (SD, 1.59) in the matched cohort.
Less time spent on the phone or in the office giving prescriptions could free up time, and for this reason it was expected that the number of consultations would drop slightly when electronic prescriptions was introduced.
