CHANGING DOCTORS RISKS LIVES

CAN you imagine allowing one surgeon to start an operation only for them to hand over midway to another?

It would compromise the patient’s safety and the success of the surgery, so would only normally happen in an emergency.

Yet this scenario happens in general practice day after day. It is very rare these days for a patient with any number of ongoing health issues to be seen by the same GP even twice on the trot.

The value of continuity of care — seeing the same doctor as often as is feasible — was underlined by a study published last year, which showed that people over the age of 65 were twice as likely to require an urgent hospital admission if they had poor continuity of care compared with those who had a high level of continuity.

The ability to give the best care, to minimise complications and errors, is dependent on knowing the whole person: the personality, the family relationships and the social situation. This makes for more effective medicine than scanning a patient’s notes.

Patients also prefer continuity: it gives them greater confidence in their doctor, facilitates communication and is an incalculable boost to morale for both the patient and the doctor — all of which improves outcomes. Yet over the past five years, the number of patients able to see their own GP has dropped by 25 per cent, according to a recent study in the British Journal of General Practice. This is an inevitable result of the rising workload and the scarcity of doctors in general practice.

Part of the issue is money, but so, too, is a move away from seeing continuity as important. Surgeries now open longer, but the price is being less likely to see the same GP.

We need to rethink what matters. It’s a sad world in which people are likely to have a better relationship with their hairdresser than with their general practitioner.