General Practice is the greatest vocation there is. Every day GPs are proud to use their skills and training to help their patients have better health and better lives. It’s incredibly rewarding for us and our patients (and the statistics!) show that it’s rewarding full stop.

Recently, Dr Tim Senior answered the question ‘Do we even need Doctors?‘. He concluded that GPs ‘know what to do when we don’t know what to do. And I can’t think of any other profession we can say that about’. So let’s have a look at a topic where GPs have to make hard decisions when we don’t know what we have to do.

Australia has an aging population and Australia is big. Really big! Driving and Australia go together like Vegemite and Toast! What do we do when aging drivers see their GP and we make a diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia?

Here is the excellent Dr Genevieve Yates with a very personal and professional view on the matter.

Here is another excellent video from Professor Joe Ibrahim.

In South Australia we have clear(er) guidelines on Fitness to Drive, with Mandatory Reporting and the associated safeguards for GPs who report patients they believe to be impaired. It’s still a hard decision. For example, just look at Kate Swaffer who has been diagnosed with dementia. What would you do?

What would I do? I’m not sure. Every patient is different and that’s one of the reasons why General Practice is, as I said above, the best vocation in the world. GPs will keep learning every day of their professional lives to serve their patients better. My advice to patients is to See Your GP, your best source of information, advice, and support for all of those hard decisions, when you don’t know what to do.

We’re Here to Help.

NEW: We can now refer for sub-specialist driving assessments!

PartridgeGP is here to help – and we will continue to serve our valued patients! 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.

Where to from here?

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!)

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 Dr Nick Tellis on 8295 3200 and have a coffee and chat with us as to how PartridgeGP can help you to help others.