6.7 TYPES OF PROCEDURES 6.8–8.6 5.7 5.0–6.5 ADVICECOUNSELLING AND PROCEDURES

112 National Medical Care Statistics 2014 Table 11.6.2: Ten most common diagnoses managed with procedures in primary care clinics in 2014 Rank Diagnosis Unweighted count n = 1,665 Weighted count n = 21,886 Percent of diagnoses with procedure n = 21,886 Rate per 100 encounters 95CI n = 325,818 Rate per 100 contacts with each diagnosis 95 CI 1 Asthma 154 1,864 8.5 0.6 0.4–0.7 20.0 14.5–25.4 2 Musculoskeletal symptom complaints 100 1,178 5.4 0.4 0.3–0.5 8.7 6.4–11.0 3 Injury skin lacerationcut 76 1,177 5.4 0.4 0.2–0.6 80.6 69.1–92.1 4 Upper respiratory tract infection 63 894 4.1 0.3 0.2–0.4 1.2 0.7–1.7 5 Preventive immunisations medications; NOS 46 738 3.4 0.2 0.1–0.3 55.2 37.0–73.4 6 Contraception, female 53 607 2.8 0.2 0.1–0.3 35.2 25.1–45.3 7 Dressingpressure compress tamponade 29 579 2.6 0.2 0.1–0.3 64.9 36.0–93.9 8 Gastroenteritis 27 536 2.4 0.2 0.0–0.3 4.1 1.0–7.2 9 Skin infections 42 534 2.4 0.2 0.1–0.2 28.5 18.8–38.2 10 Traumainjury 39 466 2.1 0.1 0.1–0.2 31.3 20.0–42.7 Comprise multiple ICPC-2 codes see Appendix 4 of 0.6 7 20.0 25.4 0.4 5 8.7 0.4 6 80.6 92.1 ract 0.3 4 1.2 ale 0.2 3 35.2 45.3 0.2 3 64.9 93.9 0.2 3 4.1 0.2 2 28.5 38.2 0.1 2 31.3 42.7 CHAPTER twelve Follow-Ups and Referrals 114 National Medical Care Statistics 2014

CHAPTER 12: FOLLOW-UPS AND REFERRALS

Depending on the diagnosis and patient needs, primary healthcare providers may schedule follow-up appointments for patients or refer them to other healthcare providers or services. These visit dispositions follow-ups and referrals and their related diagnoses were documented in NMCS 2014 and are reported here. Note that the classification of follow-ups and referrals followed a different approach than that used in NMCS 2012.

12.1 NUMBER OF FOLLOW-UPS AND REFERRALS

Table 12.1.1 shows the visit dispositions of primary care patients in 2014. • About one-third 29.7 of the patients presenting to primary care had a referral or follow-up appointment. • Almost half 49.2 of all encounters in public clinics had a follow-up appointment scheduled, compared to only 12.9 in private clinics. This finding could be attributed to the fact that the bulk of the public clinic encounters were of patients with chronic diseases see Chapter 8, who were more likely to require some form of follow-up. • Only 3.4 of all encounters were issued referrals. The referral rate was higher in the public sector compared to the private sector 5.8 versus 1.8, respectively. Table 12.1.1: Visit dispositions of primary care patients by sector in 2014 Visit disposition Unweighted count Weighted count Percent of encounters 95 CI Overall Follow-up 8,742 89,641 27.5 24.4–30.8