'Video, health education and the General Practitioner Contract'.

The 1990 General Practitioner Contract and the 1993 Contract Revision emphasised the role of health education/health promotion within primary care. In this paper, the authors suggest that a highly cost-effective approach is necessary given the premium on time available for general practitioners and members of the primary health care team to undertake such work. The views of general practitioners and the primary health care team in a random sample of general practices within all 15 Health Board areas in Scotland were sought between 1991 and 1993 regarding current experience and future potential in using video-based health education materials, with particular emphasis on the content, structure and parameters appropriate to running effective health education/health promotion programmes. This study has indicated the potential demand for high quality, appropriately targeted video-based materials for use by primary health care workers within a range of practice, community and home settings. Central to this is the need for a better system of information and dissemination of materials and a firmer evaluation framework for health education/health promotion programmes within primary care. The progress of several policy, management and research issues which arose from the findings of the study have been raised by the authors. These include implications for the NHS such as infrastructure resourcing and priority setting, programme development, information and dissemination, research and evaluation, and mechanism(s) whereby general practitioners can be better involved in this process.