The British Medical Association (BMA)’s Scotland branch has launched an online video, which follows a typical day for one GP in Glasgow, to promote the best of general practice. The launch of the video coincides with the BMA’s General Practice week which is run in partnership with the Royal College of General Practitioners.
The eight-minute film follows Dr John Tobias and his team as they carry out a typical day’s work on the south side of Glasgow. The footage includes patient consultations, house calls, running clinics and delivering public health programmes.
Dr Tobias said: “I would like to see the GP service change. There’s a little too much bureaucracy. Target reaching and box ticking is taking up too much of our time. I would like to see us doing more to promote healthy lifestyles, intervening where necessary to improve the public health. However we still need to be available to deal with the problems that people believe they need to see a doctor about.”
BMA Scotland hopes the video will raise awareness of the work carried out by GPs and their teams.
Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish General Practitioners Committee said: “Every year in Scotland, more than 21 million patient consultations take place in GP practices with a team of highly skilled individuals. For most patients, this is their first and only point of contact in the NHS system.”