Welcome back, hopefully you all enjoyed an awesome Monday and snuck in a sneaky floss after Danielle’s guest post yesterday. Today I’d like to talk about a whopper of a word – disintermediation. This word will win most games of Scrabble but that’s not why I’m bringing it up. It’s not disinformation – this will not be a big long post about #fakenews (I’m smiling here, I hope you are too). Let’s come back to disintermediation in a bit.

General Practice always involves teamwork – Your GP knows a fair bit about a lot, but there are always subject matter experts or specialists. We have Physiotherapy with Rod and Movement Theory, Specialist Urology Services with Dr Nick Brook and the team from EastWest Urology, and Podiatry with Rosie from Foot and Sole Podiatry onsite, but we know so many great practitioners offsite as well.

All of this teamwork begins with having a usual GP or General Practice central to your care. We recommend people with any health issues that come to the attention of other health professionals should be advised to attend their usual GP or General Practice rather than a specialised service (ie a place not providing the holistic care a specialist GP would). If they say that they don’t have a usual GP or general practice, they should be helped to find one and to actually attend it. 

Using your regular GP and General Practice regularly and appropriately is a great win for nearly everyone’s general health in Australia. Primary care in Australia is a massive contributor to the general health and well-being of Australians and General Practice and GPs are a massive part of primary care. Primary care is generally the first contact a person has with Australia’s health system. It relates to the treatment of patients who are not admitted to hospital. Primary care can be provided in the home or in community-based settings such as general practices, other private medical practices, community health centres, local government, and non-government service settings, such as Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. 

I’ve drawn my line in the sand so let’s dig in a little bit further. Why is your GP and your general practice such a value add to your health? One part of how this magic occurs is through eliminating disintermediation (We got back there eventually). Disintermediation is a reduction in the use of intermediaries between producers and consumers, for example by investing directly in the securities market rather than through a bank, or in a more pertinent example, patients bypassing primary care to directly present to secondary (non GP specialists like cardiologists – heart specialists) or tertiary care (hospital inpatient wards/units). Why is this an issue? After all, we have a fantastic online booking system for appointments at PartridgeGP which works by removing the need for an in hours phone call and conversation. You can sit on the toilet, or a comfier seat, at 8am, 8pm, or any time in between, and make your appointment with your PartridgeGP doctor of choice online. This removes a step you don’t always want to have to go through. It’s great, and allows our lovely front of house team to serve you better.

When the intermediary is not a barrier, but a guide, removing this can be a loss rather than a gain. Rory Sutherland sums it up in the quote below. He’s an advertising professional – I will take more words to make the same point. Having a GP as an intermediary between you and the medical maze/hospital system gives you a companion, a guide, a trusted advisor, and, at the very least, someone to complain to if there is a problem (just remember when you connected to the NBN…)!

I’ve got an anecdote where I was made aware of a patient who entered the hospital system. A smart patient with full private health cover, with more than a little experience in the medical field, who found themselves trying to navigate the medical system unaided. Their GP wasn’t contacted, their personal non-GP specialist wasn’t contacted, and as a result of this they had to undertake some tests at an expense of time, energy, and possible adverse effects to achieve a suboptimal result.

PartridgeGP works with you to help you make your best health decisions, and we won’t back away from being your companion, guide, advisor, and sounding board through your health journey. We pride ourselves on great communication and we’re ready to share our professional skills and knowledge with you. This is only MORE important now, in the time of a global pandemic with a new vaccine on the horizon. The way forward is clear: make your appointment with us conveniently online right here – or call our friendly reception team on 82953200.

Better, for you.

Want more?

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

For everyone, we believe that having a usual GP or General Practice is central to each person’s care and recommend that people with any health issues that come to the attention of other health professionals should be advised to attend their usual GP or General Practice rather than a specialised service (ie a place not providing the holistic care a specialist GP would).   If  they say that they don’t have a usual GP or general practice, they should be helped to find one and to actually attend it. Call PartridgeGP on 82953200 or make an appointment online here.

(Hat tip: Dr Oliver Frank)

(TL;DR – Get a regular GP or General Practice and use them!)

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

If you’re employed, get a side hustle and get into business. If you’ve already got a business, get a network. Want to get started? Find your tribe here!

If you are a great GP or a great Allied Health Professional, and you want to serve your clients or patients to the best of your ability, without worrying about all the non clinical things that get in your way, lets talk. Call Mrs Hayley Roberts on 8295 3200 and have a coffee and chat with us as to how PartridgeGP can help you to help others.