[What benefits does the patient gain from consulting the general practitioner? A review of the literature on the impact of consultations].

Curing, relieving and comforting are the central tasks of doctors. However, do we actually perform these tasks? A literature review was carried out to investigate how visits to general practitioners have been evaluated. The review indicates that evaluations have focused mostly on whether the patient was satisfied with the visit, on changes in the patient's health status, on whether the patient's health care consumption has decreased, on whether the patient has complied with advice and prescriptions, and to a lesser degree on enablement. These different measures have sometimes been related to the working methods of the doctor. In these often large, quantitative studies, there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning the definition of terms such as "satisfaction" and "health" and also concerning the sampling of doctors and patients. The information communicated by the studies seldom contributes to increased understanding of the importance of consultations to patients.