The general practitioner and the hospital. An experiment in in-patient care.

A 3-year rotating programme for three general practitioners as clinica assistants involved in in-patient care is described in the three associated departments of medicine, geriatric medicine and psychiatry in a district general hospital. The appointments were for three sessions a week each. The effectiveness of such rotating appointments is analysed including both the service contribution to the hospital and the educational content from the general practioner's point of view and also the way in which such appointments fit in with the timetable of work in general practice. Such a rotating scheme is most successful in geriatric medicine and psychiatry. Involvement in in-patient care in general medicine proved more difficult. Future schemes might include only 6 months in general medicine, together with 6 months in another specialty.