A GP is a Service Provider 24/7: The Good Doctor

What’s your description of a general practitioner/ physician?
General physicians provide continuing, comprehensive health care to individuals and family. The scope of a family physician (and) general practitioner encompasses all ages, sexes, each organ system and every disease entity. In health care delivery, they are the first point of contact. They provide personalised care. They facilitate preventive, curative and promotive health care and are patient-oriented.

General practitioners work on the principle of community orientation, comprehensive care and co-ordination of care, with cost-effective strategies.

What’s the difference in the services/duties provided by general physicians and general practitioners? In India, do you see any difference in their roles/responsibilities?
General physicians in India are supposed to be postgraduates in medicine and the scope of their work is usually pertaining to medicine and not of surgery, gynaecology or other allied specialities or superspecialities of medical sciences.

With the fast development of super-specialities, the scope of work has reduced for general physicians, especially related to cardiology, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, endocrinology and oncology. Still at the secondary level, general physicians have to work for these specialities, too.

Other than the usual set-ups in the government and private sectors, what are the different employment options for general physicians and practitioners?
Some of the government and private institutions have their own general duty doctors or physicians, appointed on a regular basis, who provide healthcare  to them and give necessary referrals to specialists as and when required. Most hotels empanel doctors who are on call and asked to attend on a ‘need basis’.

Are the entry study routes (mentioned in the box on page one) okay for a general practitioner and general physician, respectively?
Yes, but some of the subjects like the concept of family medicine, medical ethics, geriatric care, personality development, issues related to access, equity, and quality of health care delivery are to be incorporated in the curriculum.

What aptitude and traits should an aspiring general practitioner have?
He should understand well – what is curable, what is tolerable, what is normal, what is preventable, and when the case is to be referred to a specialist and where. He lives in the community itself, so he is a service provider for 24 hours and for 365 days a year. He provides care from womb to tomb. He is a friend, philosopher and guide of the patient and serves family as a smallest unit of the community. He has the knowledge of the disease patterns of the community but he requires academic updates of new skills and practices in medical science.

What are the pros and cons of being a general practitioner in India?
A day will come in the forthcoming era of health insurance when the first contact of the patient will be the general practitioner and only then will the case be attended to by a specialist. General practitioners are to be trained for the primary care system and the specialist for secondary or the tertiary care set-ups.