ADF Chair and rural GP Dr Aniello Iannuzzi has outlined why it makes sense for GPs to work closely with hospitals in an interview with the Medical Republic.
The way you bridge the gap is to treat GPs as equals, and not keep treating them as an underclass to other specialisations.
If you were to dispassionately look at ED presentations, and if you actually understood what GPs can and can’t do, I think you would find that at least half of the presentations could or should have been treatable by a GP.
That’s not to say that we should close EDs to those patients, but either the ED physicians have to broaden their skill set or the hospitals need to be more accommodating to GPs. It ultimately all makes for a more efficient and satisfying patient journey.
Read the whole article here.
