The state of general practice--not all for the better

doi:10.1136/bmj.a172

BMJ 2008;336:1310 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a172

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The state of general practice—not all for the better

John Howie, emeritus professor, University of Edinburgh, David Metcalfe, emeritus professor, University of Manchester, John Walker, emeritus professor, Newcastle University

Correspondence to: J Howie john.howie00@btinternet.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The 60th anniversary of the NHS is an opportunity to celebrateits many achievements—both in hospitals, in the treatmentof life threatening and seriously disabling disorders, and ingeneral practice, in the development of an effective and efficientprimary care service. Together with many others we have contributedto the renaissance of general practice in the United Kingdomafter the 1966 charter, through our involvement in the establishmentof general practice as a research based discipline in universitieswith properly structured postgraduate training.

However, we wish to express a number of worries we have aboutpotential harm to the care of patients and to medical educationthat, we think, is an unintended consequence of recent reforms.Our starting point is a statement of what we think needs tobe safeguarded: the distinguishing feature of UK general practicebefore the 1990 contract was the long term relationship betweena patient (and . . . [Full text of this article]

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The State of General Practice: Trevor JD Jones
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