Bush telegraph more effective

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1137

Published 6 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1137
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1137

Letters

Internet and health care

Bush telegraph more effective

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

I decided to use the website iwantgreatcare to identify a goodgeneral practitioner in my area.¹ I typed in "general practice"and my London suburb, and got a list of six doctors (out ofsome 50 individuals whom I know to be practising as GPs in thatarea). One of the six is not a GP at all; one left the countryfive years ago; one is well known to have been the subject ofrepeated complaints from dissatisfied patients; and one hasretired. Not a single one had any "ratings" listed from patients.

On the other hand, I was in Waitrose the other day and heardtwo people behind me talking. One, who was new to the area,had asked the other to recommend a good GP for a young family.The second individual immediately passed on clear and (I felt)accurate information about which local surgeries gave good . . . [Full text of this article]

Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care¹

¹ University College London

p.greenhalgh@pcps.ucl.ac.uk