Perceptual capacity and the good GP: invisible, yet indispensable for quality of care

[摘要] In his UK survey in 1950,1 Collings said that general practice, ‘is accepted as being something specific, without anyone knowing what it really is.’ One might have hoped that over 50 years later, we would be clearer about the specifics of what general practice is or is not. However, this is not the case. Much activity in general practice is dictated by the new General Medical services (GMS) contract.2 At the heart of this is a Quality and Outcomes Framework centred on population targets and founded on evidence-based medicine. This provides financial incentives to raise standards of care for the practice population. However, it has been criticised for being poorly attuned to the needs of the individual, and for concentrating on the disease, not the patient.3,4 There is also a growing focus on the importance of the narrative in general practice,5 which focuses on the individual patient rather than the disease.

[学科分类] 卫生学