Much as I sympathise with the
>abuse of A&E and the huge stress you are under, I think you VASTLY
>underestimate what the GPs in your area are doing (even you, Adrian).
I've
>done GP locums across Scotland and in Canada, and soft tissue injury
>management is a LARGE part of GP workload.
>My calculations are that GPs as a whole see far more trauma than A&E
depts.
Robbie - I have to differ; I've worked in several rural scots general
practices (at least one where I followed in your footsteps), and nowhere
did I see the level of minor injuries work you describe. I know that for
certain, because having come from A&E I snatched gratefully at anything
that I was experienced in dealing with. I'd be lucky to see one injury a
day, even in an area where the nearest A&E was over an hour away, and in
the height of tourist season.
However, one thing that hasn't been mentioned - with the push towards
middle-grade driven clinical work, the SGs tend to do a vast majority of
the minors work, and the SHOs, many of whom will go on to be GPs, simply
aren't seeing enough minor injuries etc to become competent at anything
other than the absolute basics.
Fiona.
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