Abstract
I know I’m old and probably a dinosaur, but my heart sank whilst reading Mahtani et al.’s paper. 1
The case study in particular: ‘The day assessment unit faxes across her discharge summary and the SP [paramedic] liaises promptly with the patients general practitioner to ensure the action points have been addressed’, where is the fun or status in general practice going to come from if we general practitioners are stuck in front of a computer screen doing everybody’s bidding, including the paramedics?
I am sure the authors did not mean it to sound quite like it did, but the simple truth is that general practitioners are being expected to carry more and more of the burden of risk with less and less of the bit that we actually trained for, and enjoy, namely seeing patients. Why can’t all the members of that multidisciplinary team detailed in the scenario get on and do the action points themselves!
It seems primary care is going to be full of people using the general practitioner professional ‘umbrella’ to carry out their work.
I got out of hospital medicine to get away from the ‘doctor informed’ culture. It looks like it is catching up with me.