Family Doctor (general Practitioner) - Duties, Appointments

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

Family doctor

A family doctor is a multidisciplinary highly qualified specialist who provides any primary health care from infancy to old age.

In many European countries, a family doctor is called a general practitioner. Its preparation allows in most cases to determine the nature of the disease and the measures necessary for its treatment.

The general practitioner is responsible for providing medical care regardless of its profile. To do this, he needs to have skills and knowledge both in the field of therapy and in numerous related fields, including neurology, ophthalmology, dermatology, otorhinolaryngology, cardiology and others. According to indications, the family doctor sends the patient for consultation to specialized specialists or to hospitalization in a hospital.

The benefits of family medicine

The specific nature of the work of a general practitioner (family doctor) is in many ways more justified and beneficial to doctors and patients. This is primarily due to the fact that, apart from therapeutic education, knowledge of narrower medical specialties (otolaryngology, infection, nephrology, gastroenterology, cardiology) makes the diagnosis faster.

In addition, by constantly observing a family, the doctor knows the family history, which makes it possible to minimize the examination time and allows fixing the disease at the earliest stages of its development.

General practitioner appointment

General practitioners are usually seen at home or in a day hospital. It depends on each specific case - the need to diagnose a small child or conduct diagnostic studies that require special equipment.

However, the outpatient appointment of a family doctor has a number of disadvantages, the most important of which is the impossibility of inpatient treatment. This is sometimes necessary in cases of management of urgent therapeutic pathology, as well as for all types of surgical care.

Also, difficulties are caused by an outpatient appointment of a family doctor in cases of complex pathologies, where it is necessary to consult a narrow specialist (for example, an immunologist-allergologist or a cardiologist-rheumatologist), as well as, if necessary, use modern equipment for diagnosis, which, as a rule, large medical institutions have.

Duties of the general practitioner

The range of duties of a general practitioner includes:

• Medical supervision and provision of qualified assistance, if necessary, using modern methods of diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Also, in some cases, his responsibility includes the development of rehabilitation measures;
• Obtaining reliable diagnostic information. Diagnostics should be carried out as soon as possible in order to establish a diagnosis. Depending on the patient's condition, the family doctor can make changes to the treatment plan and prescribe additional examinations;
• Making a diagnosis, and in some cases its confirmation, based on anamnesis, clinical observations and examinations and data from clinical and laboratory studies;
• Appointment and control over the necessary treatment, diagnostic procedures and rehabilitation measures.

Also, a family doctor is often involved in conducting examinations related to temporary disability, and his duties include preparing the necessary documents for a medical and social examination.

How to become a general practitioner (family doctor)

To obtain the profession of a general practitioner (family doctor), it is necessary to have a higher medical education, followed by postgraduate training or specialization in the specialty "General practice (family medicine)".

Since the family doctor must have various highly specialized knowledge in addition to therapeutic, the training can take up to 10 years.

Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter.