Introduction: Change of GP may imply that the patient is dissatisfied with the health service provided. The aim of this study was to investigate whether newly diagnosed cancer patients change their GP more often than other patient groups and the background population.
Material and methods: The investigation was conducted using data on inhabitants from the counties of Aarhus, Vejle and South Jutland. We included 900 Group 1 insured patients, aged 18-75 years, distributed into three groups: 1) frequent cancers, 2) rare cancers and 3) benign, but chronic or severe new diseases. The diagnoses included occurred for the first time at the time of inclusion. Three hundred controls were randomly selected from the regional health care registry in Aarhus. The study period was from March 1 to August 30 1994. A change of GP was defined as a change not caused by the patient's change of residence or the GP's change of practice registration number due to expansion, takeover or split up of practice.
Results: In the three disease groups, 28 cases of change of GP were registered with a frequency of 5% (frequent cancers), 2.7% (rare cancers) and 1.7% (benign, but chronic or severe new diseases). The frequency in the background population was 2.7%. None of the differences were statistically significant.
Discussion: During the first year following a cancer or chronic disease diagnosis, change of GP is rare, particularly among patients with rare cancers. We reject the hypothesis that change of GP is frequent among newly diagnosed cancer patients.