Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 15th September 2017 | Page 37

This Week
PIC
OF THE
WEEK
QUOTES OF
THE WEEK
US Nurse Alex Wubbels
(pictured) was arrested by
police at the University of Utah
Hospital burns unit last week,
after she refused to let officers
take a blood sample from
an unconscious patient. Ms
Wubbels presented the police
with a copy of the hospital’s
policy for drawing blood and
said their case didn’t meet the
criteria. The policy specifies
that to obtain a blood sample,
police need a judge’s order
or the patient’s consent, or
the patient needs to be under
arrest. Ms Wubbels has since
been dubbed an ‘Olympic-
sized hero’ while the detective
who ordered her arrest has
been fired from his part-time
paramedic job.
“There will be
great comfort.”
Terminally ill NSW
anaesthetist Dr Ian
McPhee describes his
feelings on arranging
access to pentobarbital.
Photo: Salt Lake City Police
Are you a GP or primary care practitioner?
THE word-association test is a movie
cliche, a pseudo psychological technique
employed to reveal a character’s
subconscious and often unpalatable
thoughts.
In Skyfall, James Bond responds to the
word “murder’” with “employment”.
How cynical.
But if you were subject to the same test
in MI6’s underground bunker, how would
you reply when the interrogator says “GP?”
Well, pay attention 007, because this
is a question that has been tackled by
linguistic researchers. Using language
analysis software, Dr Marc Jamoulle and
colleagues at the University of Liege in
Belgium conducted a terminological scan
of the definitions of ‘general practitioner’ in
the medical literature.
The lexicographer equivalents of ‘Q’
delivered up a word cloud of terms that
are commonly associated with general
practice. Not surprisingly, a GP was linked
most often to words such as ‘primary’,
Journal
Talk
Michael Woodhead
‘care’, ‘professional’, ‘family’, ‘science’,
‘social’ and ‘responsible’.
Using this list, the researchers summed
up the essence of a GP as: “A licensed
medical graduate who provides care,
specialty characterised by breadth, primary
care services, take care, promotion
of health, prevention of disease, early
diagnosis, initial decision, provision of
clinical care, rehabilitation, palliative care,
education, research.”
Other words that stood out included
‘general’, ‘personal’, ‘diversity’, ‘chronic
care’, ‘continuing’, ‘autonomy’, ‘leader’,
‘co-ordinate’, ‘trust’ and ‘balance’.
Interestingly, the researchers then
repeated their word-association test for
‘primary care’. The results shared some of
the same words and concepts as for family
doctor, including ‘first contact’, ‘continuity
of care’, ‘community’ and ‘patient-centred’.
However, the term “primary care”
was also associated with quite
different concepts, more related to
services, including ‘team’, ‘access’,
‘comprehensive’, ‘medical centre’ and
‘area’.
These word clouds provide interesting
insights into the accepted definitions of
what a GP is, and how these are distinct
from ideas about primary care more
generally. Note that ‘GP’ relates more to
personal characteristics such as needs
and care as well as individual traits such as
trust, responsibility and respect.
Primary care, on the other hand, is
associated with system concepts such as
‘planning’, ‘prevention’ and ‘promotion’.
“Although continuity of care
characterised by a person-centred
approach and shared decision-making is
core to the [GP vs primary care] definitions,
the two sets ... differ greatly in content,”
the researchers concluded.
As different as associating ‘Dr’ with ‘No’
and ‘Die’ with ‘Another Day’ perhaps.
British Journal of General Practice 2017;
online.
EMERGENCY FREQUENCY
The annual number of ED admissions around the country varies widely, from just 40
per 1000 people in some towns and suburbs to more than 600 per 1000 in others.
Gympie & Cooloola
TAS Devonport
VIC Mildura
WA Mandurah
SA Gawler &
Two Wells
NT Darwin
suburbs
291
259
250
QLD
406
374
350
Note: No data for ACT.
NT Litchfi eld
WA Cottesloe & Claremont
TAS South & West Hobart
NSW Baulkham Hills
SA Burnside
VIC Stonnington East
QLD Noosa
164
109
107
88
76
68
40
www.australiandoctor.com.au
Victorian GP Dr Lauren
Tanzen spent six hours
keeping an 11-year-old boy
alive during a helicopter
evacuation from snow-
bound Falls Creek.
“We’ve had
eight [patient]
deaths in the last
12 months in
this pharmacy
alone.”
Prescription opioid abuse
is rampant in country
towns says Iain Cartney,
a pharmacist in Bairnsdale,
Victoria.
Source: AIHW, Use of emergency departments and GP services in 2015-16

“To walk in
the door and
see [the boy’s]
dad performing
CPR was very
confronting.”
AMA president Dr Michael
Gannon says Australia is
woefully unprepared for the
next flu pandemic.
Locations with the lowest rate of ED admissions
608
NSW Kempsey & Nambucca
Federal Minister for Health
Greg Hunt says he is
hopeful that the ACWY
meningococcal vaccine will
soon be made available on
the National Immunisation
Program.
“People are
lazy and they
just don’t take
it seriously
enough.”
SNAPSHOT
Locations with the top rate of ED admissions
“We are on
the verge of a
breakthrough.”
NT
15 September 2017
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Australian Doctor |
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