What is Wise GP? The intellectual and scholarly challenge of general practice.

Abstract

The European definition of family medicine states that ‘general practice/family medicine is an academic and scientific discipline, with its own educational content, research, evidence base and clinical activity, and a clinical specialty orientated to primary care.’ (WONCA, Europe, 2002). We know that as GPs we are expert medical generalists, but do we always feel like experts at heart? The complexity of general practice consultations is well documented but is not always obvious to outsiders.1 Media representation of general practice is often negative, focusing on what GPs haven’t done or occasions when GPs have failed to make an important diagnosis. Many medical students see this, and this causes problems with GP recruitment and retention. Along with perceptions of heavy workload there is also a feeling that general practice is not intellectually challenging.2 This can be shared at times by hospital colleagues, the general public, and even GPs themselves — witness …