Take aim and fire again: laboratory investigation and the family physician.

This article discusses the attitude of the family physician to laboratory investigation and specifically reviews changes that have taken place in the last 12 years. It focuses on the problems of allocation of limited resources, the planning of laboratory services, out-of-laboratory testing, and responsibility for quality assurance. As well as bearing individual responsibility for the optimal use of a limited resource, the family physician has a co-operative part to exercise in support of the pathologist's role in organizing and planning the service on which their patients depend.