Effect of medicolegal liability on patterns of general and family practice in Canada.

As part of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Review on Liability and Compensation Issues in Health Care, in 1988 we surveyed Canadian general practitioners and family physicians to determine the effect of liability concerns on their practices in the previous 5 years. Questionnaires were sent to a random, stratified national sample of 1295 physicians, with a response rate of 64.6%. However, a high proportion of the returned questionnaires were …