Care closer to home--a changing role for physicians.

摘要

Editor - I read Linda Patterson's editorial (Clin Med February 2010 pp 4-5) with great interest. I am pleased to see that general practitioners with a special interest (GPwSI) did receive a mention albeit a brief one. There are several experienced GPwSIs working in my locality in the field of gas-troenterology and endoscopy. In my view both hospital trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) have failed to utilise this workforce effectively: they have, in effect, been regarded as 'just another pair of hands'.