Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Prof Paul Kinnersley
ORCID ID
Contact details
Department of General Practice
University of Wales College of Medicine
Llanedeyrn Health Centre
Maelfa
Cardiff
CF23 9PN
United Kingdom
+44 (0)29 2054 1133
Kinnersley@cf.ac.uk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
PSI06-24
Study information
Scientific title
Acronym
Study hypothesis
Methods are needed to ensure that those patients referred from primary to secondary care are those most likely to benefit. In-house referral is the referral of a patient by a general practitioner to another general practitioner within the same practice for a second opinion on the need for secondary care referral. To describe whether in-house referral is practical and acceptable to patients, and the health outcomes for patients.
Ethics approval
Not provided at time of registration
Study design
Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
GP practices
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
Condition
Not applicable
Intervention
Practices were randomized into an intervention or a control group. In intervention practices, patients with certain conditions who were about to be referred to secondary care were referred in-house. If the second clinician agreed referral was appropriate the patient was referred on to secondary care. In control practices patients were referred in the usual fashion. Patient satisfaction and health status was measured at the time of referral, 6 months and one year.
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Applicable
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
1. Health status: SF 36
2. Patient Satisfaction: Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (MISS)
Secondary outcome measures
Not provided at time of registration
Overall trial start date
01/04/1995
Overall trial end date
01/04/1997
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Patients judged to need hospital referral by their general practitioners. In the intervention practices, these patients were initially referred 'in-house' to another GP in the same practice. In control practices, patients were referred directly to hospital.
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Other
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
Not provided at time of registration
Participant exclusion criteria
Does not match inclusion criteria
Recruitment start date
01/04/1995
Recruitment end date
01/04/1997
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Department of General Practice
Cardiff
CF23 9PN
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
Record Provided by the NHS R&D 'Time-Limited' National Programme Register - Department of Health (UK)
Sponsor details
The Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NL
United Kingdom
Sponsor type
Government
Website
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
NHS Primary and Secondary Care Interface National Research and Development Programme (UK)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
1. 1998 results in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9464674
2. 1999 results in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10625126
Publication citations
-
Results
Maggs-Rapport F, Kinnersley P, Owen P, In-house referral: changing general practitioners' roles in the referral of patients to secondary care., Soc Sci Med, 1998, 46, 1, 131-136.
-
Results
Kinnersley P, Rapport FM, Owen P, Stott N, In-house referral: a primary care alternative to immediate secondary care referral?, Fam Pract, 1999, 16, 6, 558-561.