General practitioners in hospital.

An acute general hospital of 68 beds at Tamworth, a Midland town of 50,000 people, is staffed by general practitioners for both inpatient and casualty work. During the period 1967-8 there were 889 general practitioner admissions to the hospital for intermediate surgical and medical care, the average length of stay being 6.3 days and the average cost per case pound44.3. Of these patients 96 were transferred to other hospitals. The patients, doctors, and standard of medical care have benefited from this kind of service. A "satellite" hospital of this type therefore has an important role in the community for carefully selected types of cases.