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Doctors

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Doctors - GP's

When people are ill with a non-life-threatening condition they will most often see a General Practitioner, a GP for short. This type of doctor is often also called a Family Doctor. These doctors generally work in the local community in surgeries rather than in hospitals, so they are convenient for people to see for a consultation. However, some GPs work in other areas, such as in hospitals, in education and for insurance companies.

As the name suggests, GPs are doctors that do not have a specialty, such as a brain surgeon or cancer specialist: they are able to diagnose all the possible diseases and problems that one of their patients might have. They can treat and manage most illnesses and perform some minor surgeries in their practice. So, they are very versatile and need to have a lot of knowledge about all different kinds of ailments. They often also know their patients quite well because they have insight in their patients’ entire medical history. Only if a patient is seriously ill or the GP cannot treat the illness, the doctor will refer the patient to a specialist that works in a hospital.

If you are ill and need to see a GP you normally need to make an appointment. Sometimes you can just walk into the surgery and see a doctor, but that is not very likely. GPs are usually very busy and all their appointment times will be fully booked. Often you have to wait several hours, or even a few days, before you can get an appointment with a GP. Therefore, it is recommended that you call the practice and make an appointment with the GP’s assistant before you go to the surgery. If you are too ill to wait you have to go to a hospital and visit the emergency room.

GPs also make house-calls. A house-call is when a GP comes to your house to treat or see a patient. Most often a GP makes house-calls to see elderly people who cannot get to the surgery easily. In some cases, the doctor visits the patient to give them medicine. In other cases, the GP just wants to check on them and make sure they are ok. House calls can take up a lot of time but they are an essential part of health care for a lot of people.

If you are ill or in pain, the doctor will probably prescribe you some medicine. In a lot of cases the GP will tell you to come back if you have not started to get better in a few days. GPs often also explain how you can have a better lifestyle that could prevent you from becoming ill in the first place. They recommend people to stop smoking, not to drink too much alcohol and to get enough exercise. If the GP has prescribed you medicine, you need to go to a pharmacy with your prescription to get the medicine.

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