The focus of healthcare is changing to primary care in many countries, including the UK. One aspect of this development is a community orientation, which can be defined in a number of different ways. This paper examines community involvement in the UK, and reports some of the findings of a survey of public participation in primary care, discussing the implications for primary care groups. The survey findings and discussion concentrate on three main issues: methods and approaches to public participation; difficulties identified and ways of addressing them; achievements and outcomes of public participation.
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