Professionalisation of the practice assistant enables task delegation:1987-2001.

In times of a rising shortage of GPs, task delegation is in the centre of attention. We have investigated the role of practice assistants nowadays and how this role has been changing since the late 1980s. In addition, we studied the relationship between delegation to practice assistants and workload. Results indicated that the occupation of practice assistants has professionalised since 1987. Practice assistants are better educated and carry out more medical tasks. General practitioners (GPs) regard their practice assistants as competent and would prefer to delegate more to them. There appears to be room for expansion of the tasks of practice assistants: the GPs and the assistants are in favour of it, the assistants are sufficienlty competent, and according to GPs , patients find delegation acceptable. However, according to the GPs, task delegation is hampered by lack of time for the practice assistant, room and funds. (aut. ref.