BMJ 1996;313:1548 (14 December)

Letters

Open door and listening ear are best support for patients

EDITOR,--The data presented by Eva Grunfeld and colleagues confirm clinical experience that most recurrences of breast cancer are diagnosed by the patients themselves, who present to their general practitioner between routine hospital visits.1 The question therefore raised is not whether routine follow up can equally well be done in general practice but whether it should be done at all.

The only justification for routine follow up is when--as, for instance, in bladder cancer--the early detection of asymptomatic recurrence offers the patient appreciable benefit. Before devolving the discredited "no sign of recurrence" clinic to general practice we must address the fundamental question of what it is we are trying to achieve. I suggest that if we want to help and support our patients with breast cancer then an open door and a listening ear are better than the traditional follow up ritual.

General practitioner Grosvenor Medical Centre, Tunbridge Wells TN1 2DX

Stephen A Hall. . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Routine follow up of breast cancer in primary care: randomised trial
Eva Grunfeld, David Mant, Patricia Yudkin, Ruth Adewuyi-Dalton, David Cole, Jill Stewart, Ray Fitzpatrick, and Martin Vessey
BMJ 1996 313: 665-669. [Abstract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Maher, E J, Millar, D (2003). Shared care: step down or step up?. Qual Saf Health Care 12: 242-242 [Full text]  
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