Abstract

The common symptoms that patients present with, to a rural general practitioner (GP) in South Africa may be different to those of GP practices in urban areas  and different from patient presentations in first world countries. This study looked at the common reasons for which patients visited a GP in Kwa-Dukuza, South Africa over a four month period during 2006. Kwa-Dukuza is located on the North Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal to establish the common symptoms and clinical assessments of patients visiting a GP’s private practice and to ascertain the demographics of patients coming to the practice. A cross sectional descriptive survey whereby the reason for every visit, age, sex, payment method (cash or medical aid) and the clinical assessment were recorded for every patient from February to May 2006. The common reasons for patients visiting the GP were cough, fever, and diarrhoea, feeling weak, headaches, sore throat, abdominal pain and runny nose. There were a substantial number of visits for administrative reasons. The common symptoms related to respiratory tract illness, gastrointestinal complaints, stress and depression, skin and back complaints. Reasons for patient visit to an urban GP practice were similar to GP visits in other first world studies (United Kingdom, USA and Canada). Substantial time with patients is spent on administrative issues. It appears that patients visit doctors in rural and urban geographic areas of South Africa for similar reasons to other patients elsewhere.

Key words: General practitioner, rural practice, reasons for doctor visits, administrative issues.