The existing studies demonstrate that factors such as waiting time before consultation, continuity in seeing the same health care worker, communication with the health care worker, setting and physical environment all impact on women's satisfaction with antenatal care [ 4, 6].
A better understanding of this may have wide-ranging implications for consultation skills training, consultation length, continuity of health care provider, the skill-mix needed in primary care, and the design of information and record systems.
No diseases, no consultation fee! Continuity means that a patient has a sustaining relationship with his or her primary care physician.
The first category concerned the doctors, i.e. their competence, interpersonal skills, time spent with patients in consultation, and continuity of care.
They confided that consultation style, continuity of care and a tailored or individualized approach may have an important impact on their self-confidence and on their ability to cope with the strains of illness [ 10, 11].
Patients were asked to rate, on a four-point Likert scale, their agreement with statements about 15 aspects of follow-up covering service delivery, the consultation and continuity of care (Table 2).
First, a simple descriptive analysis was undertaken to examine the characteristics of participating patients, doctors, and their practices; patient doctor consultation rates; number and type of symptoms/signs at the index consultation; and patient doctor continuity before and after the index consultation.
Supervisors discussed the importance of shared consultations, to ensure continuity of care.
They felt cared for, and linked this to the length and depth of consultations and to continuity of care.
The most plausible mechanism to account for this distinctiveness is the established sensitivity of the PEI instrument to quality-correlated features of the consultation as discussed, e.g. clinician empathy/communication, consultation length and continuity of care.
