General Practitioners in South Africa
What Does the Future Hold for The General Practitioner in South Africa?
Often referred to as a family doctor, other than in the case of a serious accident or an emergency, the traditional role of the general practitioner, or GP, is to act as the first point of contact for anyone who may be experiencing a bout of ill health. Typically, they would have the knowledge and experience required to identify all of the common medical conditions that may affect people. The GP would also have been expected to provide a suitable course of treatment, should this be indicated, and to recognise the less common conditions that might require referral to an appropriate specialist,
Where once the services of these invaluable healthcare professionals were available around the clock, whether at their surgery or in the patient’s home, this practice has now all but ceased. In reality, both in the state-funded and private sectors, the role of the general practitioner has been on the decline for some time. In the public sector, for example, the primary-care role has become increasingly dominated by nursing staff under the direction of nurse managers. As a result, GPs can often find themselves in a subordinate position and, understandably, they are no longer keen to seek work within this sector. Increasingly, those patients who were once totally reliant upon their family doctor are now choosing, instead, to avoid attending the government-run public clinics and either presenting themselves at a hospital for attention or, if they have medical aid, consulting a private GP.
By contrast, when employed within the private healthcare sector, the general practitioner will tend to be kept quite busy, as maintaining an adequate turnover of patients is essential in order to meet the high cost of funding a private practice. For the patient, this can often mean there might be a delay of a day or two for the next available appointment slot. What remains abundantly clear is that the government is not willing to contract fully with GPs but would rather have them agree to work for a few hours a week in public clinics, a move that could hasten their demise even further.
Intercare, however, continues to recognise the importance of your family doctor and has taken steps to ensure that their services will remain available to those patients who also appreciate the value of easy access to the personal and professional attention provided by a general practitioner. As part of its primary-care service, GP appointments are available even on weekends and public holidays, as well as dentists, psychologists, optometrists, audiologists, and even X-ray and pathology services. All it takes is a phone call.