WOMAN’S GP DR HELEN WALL ON HER TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Do you need to see the same GP?
If you don’t have a designated doctor or never get to see them, it could be having an impact on your health
If you ask me what I love most about being a GP, I’ll very quickly tell you that it’s developing relationships with my patients and following them through their life course – for better or worse.
I know this answer would be replicated by many of my colleagues and I also know a recent survey found that over half of patients prefer to see the same GP each time. Despite this – and for numerous reasons – it does feel like a memory of the good old days.
GPs have often been portrayed as the villain over recent times, but please don’t believe that we don’t want these long-trusted relationships with our patients. We do. We know (in many cases) it produces better outcomes for patients and fewer complaints for GPs. But the reality is there is an ever-decreasing number of us and an ever-increasing demand for appointments – meaning the numbers don’t balance.
Too much demand
In brief, it’s due to millions of people sitting on post-pandemic waiting lists for specialist help and operations. This means that your local GPs are trying to manage a backlog of people’s pain and symptoms that previously would have been managed and settled long ago.
Cases of mental health deterioration have escalated too, and the number of times a patient consults with a GP in a year has trebled since 2018.
Seeing a specialist
Even before COVID-19, the workforce was dwindling and every practice began developing an array of allied health professionals highly skilled in a key area, such as musculoskeletal practitioners (bones and joints), clinical pharmacists (medications and minor ailments) and mental health practitioners – meaning that people with issues that can only be dealt with by a GP can access a GP.
Best of both worlds
My advice is to embrace the new world of allied health professionals, while ho
