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Sunday 27 May 2012

The patient as (extremely demanding) customer

Dr Crippen - who's now a columnist at the Guardian - warns against more tampering with the role of GPs:

It is about pandering to Sebastian and Hermione – the demanding, middle-class, focus-group attending, foreign-holiday booking ("Why should I have to pay for those malaria tablets?"), Bupa-subscribing "worried-well" who demand the "right" to see a doctor at a time and place of their own choosing for any condition, however trivial. Sebastian wants to discuss his athlete's foot. Hermione wants to know if bio-yoghurt with bifidus digestivus will help her intestinal yeast problem. Today. Now. In their lunch hour, please. With any doctor who is free.

The demand is insatiable, and the only way the government can cater for it is by dumbing-down the service and moving towards a 24/7 "medical supermarket"... Boundary-free, one-size-fits-all, 24/7 supermarket medicine might meet the current needs of Sebastian and Hermione and all their worried-well friends. But when they get older and perhaps develop serious illnesses, they will miss the depth of knowledge and the continuity of care they used to get from their family doctor.

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