Modern medicine vs old fashioned GP
What would you rather have? High faluting investigations or a GP who knows you, your family and your community?
I won’t launch into a polyclinic rant but I will highlight a recent incident that does make one wonder about the consistency of care across practices. Recently, I did a locum at a little semi-rural practice. I saw a middle aged chap and he explained his trouble. He tootles off up the hill from his house to get a paper and gets some pain squeezing him across his chest. He stops, it stops. A pretty decent story for angina. In other words, one or more of his coronary arteries might be getting a bit furry.
No problem. Let’s do some basic tests, says I. I took the bloods myself (it is a small practice and no nurse or other staff). Next stop – let’s get an ECG (electrocardiogram). I asked the receptionist to direct me to the machine. It has been a little while since I did an ECG myself but I was a junior doctor when the only other people working on the ward were nurses and I would have been castrated for asking them to do this job for me.
I was duly informed that the only way to get an ECG was to send a referral form in the post to the local hospital. The patient would then make a 40 minute trip to the hospital for a 2 minute test. I think I gasped out loud.
I am so used to ECGs being a routine part of general practice care that it hadn’t occurred to me that a practice may not have one. (You can buy one here for a shade under £1500 and given the alarming mark up that medical equipment generally achieves that is a give away price).
I have no doubt this practice is loved by its patients. They get a personalised intimate service from a GP with a real sense of community. Not much sense of medicine in the 21st century though. Still, that might not be a bad thing thing either.
