How does general practitioner discontinuity affect healthcare utilisation? An observational cohort study of 2.4 million Norwegians 2007–2017

OBJECTIVES: Patients may benefit from continuity of care by a personal physician general practitioner (GP), but there are few studies on consequences of a break in continuity of GP. Investigate how a sudden discontinuity of GP care affects their list patients’ regular GP consultations, out-of-hours consultations and acute hospital admissions, including admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). DESIGN: Cohort study linking person-level national register data on use of health services and GP affiliation with data on GP activity and GP characteristics. SETTING: Primary care. PARTICIPANTS: 2 409 409 Norwegians assigned to the patient lists of 2560 regular GPs who, after 12 months of stable practice, had a sudden discontinuity of practice lasting two or more months between 2007 and 2017. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Monthly GP consultations, out-of-hours consultations, acute hospital admissions and ACSC admissions in periods during and 12 months after the discontinuity, compared with the 12-month period before the discontinuity using logistic regression models. RESULTS: All patient age groups had a 3%–5% decreased odds of monthly regular GP consultations during the discontinuity. Odds of monthly out-of-hours consultations increased 2%–6% during the discontinuity for all adult age groups. A 7%–9% increase in odds of ACSC admissions during the period 1–6 months after discontinuity was indicated in patients over the age of 65, but in general little or no change in acute hospital admissions was observed during or after the period of discontinuity. CONCLUSIONS: Modest changes in health service use were observed during and after a sudden discontinuity in practice among patients with a previously stable regular GP. Older patients seem sensitive to increased acute hospital admissions in the absence of their personal GP.