Specialist - Family Medicine
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General Medicine
General Medicine
Overview
General medicine is a specialty within medicine that is concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of various diseases, both acute and chronic. General medicine is the study of dealing with the human body from head to toe.
This field of medicine deals with diseases that can be treated with non-surgical treatment. With severe and terminal illnesses this field's practitioner can guide the patient into what precautions to take and how to reduce the condition. The doctors that specialize in this specialty are referred to as ‘general practitioners’ or GPs.
Who is a General Practitioner?
In the field of medicine, the General Practitioner (GP) is responsible for treating various illnesses from acute to chronic and providing patients good health education and preventive care.
A general practitioner manages the type of illnesses that are in their early stage. The duties of a GP are not confined to a specific body part; instead, they have a particular skill in treating multiple health issues that a patient might have. They’re trained to provide treatment for almost every part of the body, for any age or gender. Obviously, they can’t treat every disease that someone might have to the fullest capacity. They have a broad knowledge and training of every field but if the health problem of a patient is complex and out of their expertise, a GP will refer the patient to a specialist of that issue. Although, the complexity to which a general practitioner can treat varies greatly from country to country.
What does a GP do?
A general practitioner's role is massive in medicine, you’d probably go to a GP for any health problems you’re having first. Here are some of the jobs that a GP has to deal with:
Referring
A general practitioner has skills that are very important in the medical field but a GP cannot treat an illness that is very complex so, one of the most important jobs of a GP is to identify a patient's disease and refer them to a specialist who has been trained in the required medical field.
Family practice
Generally, a doctor is someone you have to go to a clinic to consult but a general practitioner usually works as a family doctor and is willing to provide services to your home. So, whenever you feel ill or sick, they’re there to provide the help that only they can because they know everything about your health history.
Health check-ups
One of the most important things in preventing any type of health issues or keeping yourself healthy is to do routine check-ups. A GP will help you with their broad knowledge to do a check-up and make sure you’re as healthy as you can be.
Care of chronic health problems
A GP is your go-to when you need to maintain a chronic disease. GP will help you treat and maintain your chronic disease by providing check-ups, treatments, and valuable advice.
Treatment of acute disease
While providing referrals and advice, a GP has the ability to treat a massive number of non-life-threatening diseases by medication and other non-surgical practices.
Including all of the above, a GP can provide much more services including, preventive care by health education and immunization, pre-hospital emergency care, early identification of a serious illness, and much more.
Reasons to visit a GP
As a general thumb rule, you should book an appointment with your GP once per year making it an annual check-up. As the saying goes, “prevention is always better than cure” this applies especially when it comes to health, preventive care is an essential part of living a long, healthy life. A check-up with a GP will measure your health status by different screenings and tests. And unfortunately, if you have some health problem that’s serious this visit will make sure you find it as early as possible.
Apart from your routine check-up, here are some reasons why you might need to book an appointment with your general practitioner:
- Sudden minor or semi-minor injury that needs to be checked out.
- Chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or skin problems require constant care to be maintained. A GP will help you with the management of a chronic health problem.
- If you need a referral to a specialist, A GP can do a normal diagnosis and give you a referral to a specialist.
- Respiratory or circulatory issues, like asthma or high blood pressure
- Ear or eye pain
- If you have any issue related to your mood or mental health, a visit to a GP as the first course of action might be very helpful
- Any issues with your bladder and digestion
- Sudden illness like a fever or headache
- If you have a concern related to your skin, a GP will help you with identifying and treatment, if it doesn't require a specialist
Regardless of the reasons, if you feel unwell and unable to identify the cause of it, you should definitely schedule an appointment with a general practitioner.
