I have a partner very like yours. There may appear to be little
difference in measurable outcome, but appearances may be deceptive.
On occasion I find myself having to sort out properly the undemanding
elderly
that he has fobbed off with a phone call instead of a visit, or the person
who
should has recieved a prescription instead of an examination.
These people depend on the safety net provided their colleagues, but in the
case
of my partner the deficiencies do bubble to the surface every now again. The
tricky thing about my partner is that he is very good at staging displays of
helpfulness, and he does generate a great deal of pooled non-GMS income.
also
his list size is the same as the rest of us. I'm afraid that the issue does
rather get ducked as a consequence.
I contend that the style of medicine practiced by you (and hopefully by me)
is inherently superior. Volume of demand for your services may partly
reflect
your approachability/friendliness/helpfulness etc but it also reflects the
patients perception of quality. Approachability/friendliness/helpfulness is
itself a quality issue because patients ill bring you problems that they
would have neglected if obliged to take them to an uninterested doctor.
What a pity that doing the job "properly" creates such stress. It hasn't
happened to me yet but it probably will! I hope to find a middle way (not
God forbid a 3rd way!) in which I give a little less of myself, and yet
still
do the important stuff well. You've found your own middle way.
Good luck to you.
Mark Pasola
> What were the differences between us? Patient satisfaction surveys would
> show a swing to me, but what about scientific measurments. Did I cure
> more people than him? Did I reduce morbididity than him? I doubt it.
> On the contrary, very possibly. The point being that the patients liked
> me and I (must have) liked them. But he was the one who buggered off to
> the golf course at 11.30am while I was in surgery an hour later, taking
> calls from patients who couldn't get into see me in the morning, and
> doing all the rest of the stuff my mode of working generated but which my
> partner's mode of working did not.
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