An observational study in which patients attending a health centre in Riyadh during a typical working week were invited to participate was undertaken, in order to study the variability of patients' attendance rates at a health centre and identify any association with the length and content of consultations. Four hundred and sixty females and 442 males representing 63of patients seen during the study period agreed to participate. There was an uneven patient attendance rate during the working hours of the study week with 10.16 consultations per doctor per hour in the evening compared with 5.58 in the morning. By international standards the average consultation time was short (5.09 minutes). Contrary to what was expected, the proportion of patients who had long consultation times (>10 minutes) or were offered health education did not increase during the light work periods. Long compared with short consultations were more likely to include health education issues but did not differ significantly in the rate of prescription, investigation or referral. Recommendations as a result of the study include (i) suggestions to spread the work evenly and (ii) performing assessment and audit studies with the purpose of encouraging longer consultations and including health education more frequently.
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