Commentary: The basis of a more rational method of funding primary medical care?

significant (for example, rates of car ownership and tenure status) are also similar to those identified in other studies, when modelled correctly in a multilevel framework, there are far fewer significant area effects: reliance on "indices of deprivation" will inevitably be very crude because individual characteristics are so much more powerful predictors of consulting behaviour.The models described form a basis for estimating the demand for general practitioner services at the practice level.While the problems in using individual socioeconomic data would be substantial, it might be possible, by a combination of small area statistics, the sample of anonymised records, and age-sex registers, to provide a basis for an equitable distribution of resources in the primary as well as the secondary care sector.