Monitoring Section 63 activities.

The descriptions published about educational activities provided for general practitioners under Section 63 in the North-West Region have been analysed and the pattern of attendance by general practitioners on the list of the Salford Family Practitioner Committee examined. On the one hand there was a small group of 25 out of 131 (19 per cent) of frequent attenders, who accounted for over half of all attendances; on the other hand there was a group of 18 out of 131 (14 per cent) who never came at all. More than 80 per cent of the topics fell in the area (1) of the Royal College of General Practitioners (1972). Evening meetings were preferred to lunch-time meetings and few general practitioners (12 per cent) travelled more than ten miles from Salford to attend Section 63 meetings in 1973 to 1974. We suggest that local organizers should be requested to complete a form giving brief details of such meetings to assist in regional planning.