Br Med J. 1976 Oct 16;2(6041):903-6. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6041.903.
A survey was performed to find out how many doctors in Great Britain were providing nephrological services. The number of such doctors in each region correlated closely with the size of population, but the relation between the numbers of sessions they provided and the size of population, though significant, was not nearly so close. The number of sessions provided correlated strongly with both the number of patients on dialysis and the number of outpatients seen each week. These findings indicated that nephrological services were unevenly distributed throughout the country, while patients with renal diseases are probably evenly distributed. Even in the regions providing the most sessions demand still exceeds supply. In Britain only 62-0 patients per million population were being treated for terminal renal failure at 31 December 1975, whereas over twice that number were being treated in Switzerland (136-1 per million) and Denmark (132-4 per million). Despite the deficiencies in the service, doctors attempt to see all patients with a renal disorder at least once and to treat acute renal failure, though many patients cannot be followed up.
为了查明英国有多少医生提供肾病学服务，进行了一项调查。每个地区这类医生的数量与人口规模密切相关，但他们提供的诊疗时段数量与人口规模之间的关系，尽管显著，但却没有那么紧密。提供的诊疗时段数量与接受透析的患者数量以及每周门诊患者数量都密切相关。这些发现表明，肾病学服务在全国分布不均，而肾病患者可能分布均匀。即使在提供诊疗时段最多的地区，需求仍然超过供给。1975年12月31日，在英国，每百万人口中只有62.0人接受终末期肾衰竭治疗，而在瑞士（每百万人口中有136.1人）和丹麦（每百万人口中有132.4人），接受治疗的人数是英国的两倍多。尽管服务存在不足，但医生们试图至少为所有肾病患者看一次病并治疗急性肾衰竭，不过许多患者无法得到随访。
