The Keppoch Medical Practice: reporting from the Deep End

Abstract

According to those who have worked elsewhere, the only difference in our Deep End practice compared with other practices is that there are ‘very few easy cases’. For a GP in problem-solving mode it can be galling to find so few solutions — the chest problem cannot be cured immediately because giving up smoking, in a life fraught with anxiety and debt, can only be achieved in the long term. To allow this to happen, the practice has needed more resources than are required in a ‘normal’ practice. Otherwise we would have been repeating the mistakes of the past in depriving the deprived of any hope of change. A major resource need concerns communication. The only real way to ensure that doctor and patient are on the same wavelength is for face-to-face meetings to pick up the non-verbal signals. Unread leaflets are regularly found discarded on the ramp from the surgery. Of course there is no point in using doctor time when all that is needed is to communicate that there are others with the necessary skills in the community. The main …