General practitioner relocation in an urban area.

One important factor affecting access to primary health care is the location of the general practitioner but it is often assumed that opportunities to influence the distribution of general practitioners are minimal owing to their low propensity to relocate. In this study in an urban area of Manchester a relatively high level of turnover over nearly five years was observed among 488 general practitioners, reflecting factors such as changes of practice within the study area (6% of general practitioners), movements to new premises without changing practice (7%), moves into (23%) and out of (20%) the study area and retirements (13%). Some characteristics of movers were examined and compared with those of other general practitioners. It is argued that levels of turnover may be predictable to some extent, but that family practitioner committees need greater knowledge of general practitioners' movements in order to influence the distribution of general practitioner services.