Which doctor would help on Overarching view on symptoms

larbakium

Hello,
I would like to know if any of you have though the same and whether you know of a speciality that could help.

When we have symptoms we go to a GP and they help with diagnose, address or refer as seen fit. If refered, than a consultant/specialist looks at a specific set of symptoms and very likely relates them to their area of speciality. And thisprocess repeats if you would to have another set of symptoms.

I feel that often, we missed a linking point that looks at symptoms or even looks at bloods results and not focus just necessarily on a specific area of the body, but actually is capable of a more holistic view/analysis.

My closer experience of that was with a Neurologist. Where out of looking at some bloods requested to a specific set of symptoms they connected back some other random symptoms and were able to find intruction to bring the body to a balance. In this case they did not address only the symptoms. Instead addressing the root cause...

Have you had similar experiences?

Breezer

This is a problem inherent in overspecialisation within a health service. Doctors become very expert in their own specialist area, but once your symptoms go outside that, you are referred on somewhere else. The big picture can sometimes end up being missed.

There is a need for generalists as well as specialists. There are, to my mind, three groups of doctors who fulfil this role. Unfortunately, none provide a perfect solution:

GPs are generalists, and a good GP will endeavour to do exactly as you described. Unfortunately, they are hampered by a lack of timely access to diagnostic tests and the expertise of specialists. If a GP can handle 90% of your problem, but needs specialist advice on 10%, you go onto a waiting list of whatever length to see a specialist. It would be very helpful if specialists were available (and were paid) to take phone calls from GPs in a timely manner. They could advise over the phone, suggest they review the patient, or suggest that another specialist may be more helpful for this particular problem). This is how it works in some other countries, such as Canada.

Emergency Medicine doctors treat everything, but are not equipped to manage ongoing problems, or bring patients back for review to any great extent. They are really only able to deal with the here and now and then refer on.

Geriatricians/Paediatricians deal with just about everything (there are also subspecialties within these groups, particularly in paediatrics), but their expertise only extends to certain age groups.

I’ve long been of the view that a hospital-based general medical physician is something we badly need. My older colleagues lament the loss of this type of doctor, who used to exist.

larbakium

Breezer wrote: »

This is a problem inherent in overspecialisation within a health service. Doctors become very expert in their own specialist area, but once your symptoms go outside that, you are referred on somewhere else. The big picture can sometimes end up being missed.

There is a need for generalists as well as specialists. There are, to my mind, three groups of doctors who fulfil this role. Unfortunately, none provide a perfect solution:

GPs are generalists, and a good GP will endeavour to do exactly as you described. Unfortunately, they are hampered by a lack of timely access to diagnostic tests and the expertise of specialists. If a GP can handle 90% of your problem, but needs specialist advice on 10%, you go onto a waiting list of whatever length to see a specialist. It would be very helpful if specialists were available (and were paid) to take phone calls from GPs in a timely manner. They could advise over the phone, suggest they review the patient, or suggest that another specialist may be more helpful for this particular problem). This is how it works in some other countries, such as Canada.

Emergency Medicine doctors treat everything, but are not equipped to manage ongoing problems, or bring patients back for review to any great extent. They are really only able to deal with the here and now and then refer on.

Geriatricians/Paediatricians deal with just about everything (there are also subspecialties within these groups, particularly in paediatrics), but their expertise only extends to certain age groups.

I’ve long been of the view that a hospital-based general medical physician is something we badly need. My older colleagues lament the loss of this type of doctor, who used to exist.

Thank you for your views.
It is quite interesting that this more overarching role does sit with what we refer to as GPs. Again, in my experience, I feel that often they tend to focus on treating a symptom rather than attempt to look at it more holistically. And I am not talking about different belief of medicines, even within traditional medicine, things like a blood analysis, think outside the box and try to understand source of a problem that is causing the symptoms.

I appreciate that without examples this is hard to explain.