The community services card and utilisation of general practitioner services

Aims. To examine the relationship between holding a community services card and the utilisation of general practitioner services. Methods, A 1 year retrospective notes review from a random sample of 5637 general practitioner records. Results, CSC holders consulted their family doctor an average of 0.9 more times per year than non card holders. The CSC remained a significant predictor (p<0.0001) of consultation rate after controlling for age, gender, high user status and five common chronic conditions. Although holding a CSC had no significant effect on prescribing rate, CSC holders received significantly more prescription items per annum (6.74 items vs 4.89 items). Conclusions, The CSC is a significant predictor of utilisation. The CSC identifies people who use more resources than people who do not hold the card, in terms of number of consultations and number of prescription items per year.