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PRIMARY CARE: Kristian Pollock, Janet Grime, and David Mechanic Patients' perceptions of entitlement to time in general practice consultations for depression: qualitative study • Commentary: Managing time appropriately in primary care BMJ 2002; 325: 687 [Abstract] [Full text]

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The art of good timing

Peter J Aquino   (4 October 2002)

The art of good timing 4 October 2002
Peter J Aquino, General practitioner Market Street Health Group East Ham London E6 2RA Send response to journal: Re: The art of good timing	Sir May I congratulate Pollock and Grime on an excellent and highly relevant study. However in the methods section the authors have stated that they wished to compare the views of patients regarding the nature of their depression and the effectiveness of its treatments yet the whole of the paper has been devoted to patients' perceptions with regard to time and no mention is made of concerns other than time which may have been relevant to the actual paper. It would also have been interesting to note whether those patients who felt that their GPs who seem to have too little time for treating their depressive ilnesses would feel that as little time would be spent when it came to treating their physical illnesses too or would their GPs actually seem to have more time? i.e do doctors change their patient-centredness when treating physical as opposed to psychological illnesses. Nevertheless this qualitative study has thrown up some interesting questions which should be appreciated by GPs at large. Dr Peter Aquino