Abstract
Background: Patients attending general practices receive about 60% of indicated preventive services. Patients do not know which preventive services are indicated for them and want their GPs to offer those services. Methods: Patients arriving for consultations in three general practices received individualised prevention summary sheets. Acceptability was assessed by patient survey. Sustainability was assessed by the number of sheets printed over time. Results: Seventy-two percent of patients discussed the advice on their sheet in the consultation, and 89% wanted to receive the sheets in the future. Practices printed 8882 sheets in the 52 weeks from the start of the trial. Discussion: This new intervention seems to be acceptable and sustainable in the Australian setting. It has the potential, therefore, to increase the delivery of preventive care in general practice. A larger trial is needed to demonstrate its effect on performance of preventive activities and on patient outcomes.