My GP Tutor....

... is the best GP in the world. Fact.

This is evidence based medicine. My evidence being that at least 80% of the patients that I see at the GP surgery tell me that he is the best GP in the world. They also bring him so many chocolates that even when all the other staff have taken home a box there's still a box for me to have.

Being at medical school is not just about learning facts from books, it's about learning how to be a good doctor. I guess we do this from watching bad doctors and avoiding what they do, while seeking out good doctors and trying to emulate what makes them a good doctor. For this reason I thought I'd list the things that make my GP tutor, the-best-GP-in-the-world.

1. He's been a GP at 1 practice for over 30 years. Because of this he knows lots of little things about his patients and always makes them feel cared for by asking after relatives and past medical problems.

2. He never makes a patient feel like a timewaster.

3. When a patient cries, he knows what to do. He doesn't just sit there awkwardly like some people. He offers tissues and tells them its OK to cry.

4. He cares for his palliative patients. He'll do home visits after surgery hours so he's not rushed and can sit with the family for half an hour or more to answer their questions and just be there. He also will sometimes just sit there holding a very sick patients hand so the relatives have time to go and make a cup of tea.

5. He is frank and open with patients. "Am I going to die doc?" ... "Probably not today, but there comes a time when all of us have to die".

6. He doesn't panic. Prime example a lady who is 38 weeks pregnant came into the surgery. Her BP was over 160/110. On questioning she hadn't felt her baby move in over 24 hrs. We couldn't find a foetal heartbeat. Mum started to panic. I was quietly panicing. He was calmly reassuring the woman, phoning the hospital and organising child care for her younger child. Thankfully the baby was OK, but I was so impressed with the way he didn't fuss and took control of the situation right down to phoning the patients mother to pick up the younger child from the GP surgery.

I'm sure like any doctor he has his bad days, and I'm sure he makes his mistakes, but I hope that once I'm practising my patient's feel that I'm as good a doctor as he is.

Lily xXx