title: Doctors' knowledge of socio-legal aspects of patient care.
abstract: Doctors' knowledge of socio-legal aspects of patient care is poor. To quantify this a questionnaire on certain socio-legal topics was sent to 400 general practitioners and 250 hospital doctors. The responses were compared to a group of social workers. Both hospital doctors and general practitioners did badly on all topics considered. Social workers' knowledge was significantly better overall, (P < 0.01). Our results confirm the lack of knowledge amongst a broad spectrum of doctors. We suggest that this may be related to a lack of emphasis on these aspects in both undergraduate and postgraduate education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Royal Liverpool Hospital.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Benbow
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Barrett
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010820:Physicians; D006113:United Kingdom