Who needs a General Practitioner ?
Raymond
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A general practitioner (GP) or family physician (FP) is a
physician/medical doctor who provides primary care. A GP/FP treats
acute and chronic illnesses, provides preventive care and health
education for all ages and both sexes. Some also care for hospitalized
patients, do minor surgery and/or obstetrics. The term family doctor is
common in the United Kingdom, where the word "physician" is only used
for certain specialists and not for GPs.
United States
In the United States, a General Practitioner has completed a one year
internship required to obtain a medical license, after having received
at least an undergraduate Baccalaureate Degree and a four year Doctor
of Medicine (or in many US States a Doctor of Osteopathy) Degree. A
Family Practice physician has completed a 3 year family medicine
residency in addition to the undergraduate and doctoral studies, and is
eligible for board certification now required by hospitals and health
plans.
In the modern era, American Family Physicians consider being referred
to as a "General Practitioner" or a "GP" as a somewhat demeaning and
derogatory term, discounting their much more advanced training.
A Family Physician is board-certified in Family Medicine. Training is
focused on treating an individual throughout their life stages. Family
physicians complete undergraduate school, medical school and 3 more
years of specialized medical residency training in Family Practice.
Board Certified Family Physicians retake an 8 hour written examination
every 6-7 years, as well as a case review of 20 patients from their
recent practice, to remain certified. Three hundred hours of continuing
medical education within the prior six years is also required to be
eligible to sit for the exam.
Between 2003 and 2009 this process will be changed in Family Medicine
and all other American Specialty Boards to a continuous series of
yearly competency tests on differing areas within the given specialty.
The American Board of Family Medicine, as well as other specialty
boards, are requiring additional participation in continuous learning
and self-assessment to enhance clinical knowledge, expertise, and
skills. The Board has created a program called the Maintenance of
Certification Program for Family Physicians (MC-FP) which will require
family physicians to continuously demonstrate proficiency in four areas
of clinical practice: professionalism, self assessment/lifelong
learning, cognitive expertise and performance in practice. Certificates
of Added Qualifications (CAQs) in Adolescent Medicine, Geriatric
Medicine, or Sports Medicine are available for those physicians who
meet additional training requirements.
There is very little private Family Medicine practice in Canada.
In Canada, there are no newly qualifying General Practitioners: all
medical students go on to a specialty, Family Medicine being the most
popular. Following four years in medical school, a resident will spend
2-3 years in an accredited Family Medicine program. At the end of this,
residents are eligible to be examined for Certification in the College
of Family Physicians of Canada *[1]. Many hospitals and health regions
now require this Certification. To maintain their Certificate, doctors
must document ongoing learning and upgrade activities to accumulate
MainPro credits. Some doctors add an extra year of training in
Emergency Medicine and can thus be additionally certified as CCFP(EM).
Extra training in Anesthesia, Surgery and Obstetrics may also be
recognised but this is not standardised across the country.
Do we really need these expensive prima donna GPs in the United States?
Are "General Practitioners" or "GPs" overated, overpaid and overwhelmed
with too many patients? Can well trained nurses perform the same duties
as the GPs and at a much lower cost? After all, the GP really does
nothing more than attempt to diagnose a patient's problem and then send
him/her on to someone else to fix the problem. The GP is simply just
the usher or maitre d' for the patient. Until the patient has been
blood tested or x-rayed by someone other than the GP, it is strictly
guess work for the family doctor who does little that a well qualified
nurse cannot do for the same patient.
The office nurse has already taken the temperature and blood pressure
of the patient before the doctor even enters the picture. And a good
nurse with lots of hospital experience may be better qualified than the
doctor to advise the patient.Also, the nurse generally knows much more
about the medications and their interactions with other drugs than the
doctor who relies on what he was told by the pharmacy company pimp.
SEE:
Prescribing Under the Influence
By E. Haavi Morreim
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/morreim/prescribing.html
Gifts to doctors from drug companies have implications for patient
interests.
Public opinion about doctors' pay
CE Ross and J Lauritsen
Public opinion about doctors' incomes was examined in a national random
sample of 843 respondents; 70.1 per cent of those questioned felt
physicians are overpaid. There was a high degree of agreement among
various groups that physicians are overpaid, but older people and
Whites were more likely to think so than younger people and other
ethnic groups. People who believe that the United States is
characterized by unequal educational opportunity, unfair income
distribution, and limited resources were also more likely to think
physicians are overpaid.
Especially the GPs.
See:
Gangsters In Medicine
Gangsters In Medicine By Thomas Smith Val...@healingmatters.com ... For
a time, these changes actually improved the practice of medicine in the
United ...
http://www.rense.com/general33/gang.htm
HOW TO STOP YOUR DOCTOR KILLING YOU
The person most likely to kill you is your doctor.' ... In this brand
new edition of How To Stop Your Doctor Killing You, you'll discover
many truths about ...
http://www.vernoncoleman.com/htsydky.htm
Let us prey
Raymond
Raymond
which medical tasks a nurse should perform. Trained nurse practitioners
offer primary care that appears to be just as good as what doctors can
provide, say researchers.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
Many Patients Prefer Nurses To Doctors
Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues / Medical Personnel
Since the days of Florence Nightingale, there has been a debate over
which medical tasks a nurse should perform. Trained nurse practitioners
offer primary care that appears to be just as good as what doctors can
provide, say researchers.
Findings:
Nurses spent more time with patients.
Nurses conducted more tests.
Patients did no better or worse when they saw a nurse instead of a
doctor.
However, patients treated by nurses were more satisfied with their
care.
Nurses cannot completely replace doctors; but for patients wishing
same-day medical care nurse practitioners provide a very good standard
of care, according to study.
The American Medical Association opposes independent practice by nurse
practitioners, although it recommends that doctors work in close
collaboration with them. The AMA's president-elect, Yank D. Coble Jr.,
said a British study fails to account for the fact that most
primary-care patients aren't very sick. Coble says nurses simply don't
have the rigorous scientific background needed for subtle or complex
illnesses.
However, nurse practitioner advocates point out that not every
physician is trained in every disease. General practitioners routinely
refer patients to physicians with specialized knowledge; nurse
practitioners could easily do likewise.
Source: Daniel DeNoon, "Many Patients Prefer Nurses to Doctors," WebMD,
April 4, 2002; Sue Horrocks, Elizabeth Anderson, and Chris Salisbury,
"Systematic Review of Whether Nurse Practitioners Working in Primary
Care Can Provide Equivalent Care to Doctors," British Medical Journal,
April 6, 2002.
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Copyright © 2002 National Center for Policy Analysis - All rights
reserved.
For text Medical Personnel
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
Objective: To determine whether nurse practitioners can provide care at
first point of contact equivalent to doctors in a primary care setting.
Conclusion: Increasing availability of nurse practitioners in primary
care is likely to lead to high levels of patient satisfaction and high
quality care.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/324/7341/819