Involvement of lay visitors in general practice assessment visits.

Six practice assessment visits which jointly involved lay and medical visitors were arranged by the patient liaison group of the Royal College of General Practitioners. These visits were inspired by the 'What sort of doctor' report published by the RCGP in 1985. A subgroup of the patient liaison group adapted the assessment grid from the report to take account of involving lay visitors with doctors on practice visits. The visits were educationally valuable to the lay visitors, and also prompted some practical changes in the practices. This experiment might have further application in the development of fellowship by assessment or even in the process of reaccreditation of general practitioners.