Helen Salisbury: Continuity and learning from experience

Continuity of care—seeing the same GP over time—reduces the need for emergency care and increases longevity in patients.1 It leads to better patient satisfaction and improved quality of care.2 It also has the potential to make GPs into better doctors—not just for the individual patient in front of us, as we learn more about their life and gain their trust, but by deepening our understanding of medicine.Although I was technically ready for practice when I completed my training, I know that I’m a better GP now than I was then. Some of my new knowledge comes from update courses and formal ongoing education, but much of what I now know I’ve learnt from patients. As a medical student I had a head full of clearly defined sets of symptoms and signs that led to solid diagnoses, but once I entered practice I rapidly discovered that the real world is much…
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