Acute medicine – an alternative take (1)
Editor – As a GP who is also interested in the interface between primary and secondary care, I enjoyed Michael Houghton's recent article (Clin Med Feb 2011 pp 26–7). I would encourage him to develop the role he is exploring as a GP in an acute setting. Houghton explores the difference in philosophy between general practice and hospital medicine. I would like to commend Marinker's1 exposition in this respect which other readers might also finding interesting. Markiner wrote ‘the role of a GP is to tolerate uncertainty, explore probability and marginalise danger; while the role of the hospital specialist is to reduce uncertainty, explore possibility and marginalise error.’ I believe this might be helpful in understanding the different approaches to the use of investigations, and clinical risk management between GPs and consultants.
Footnotes
Please submit letters for the editor's consideration within three weeks of receipt of Clinical Medicine. Letters should ideally be limited to 350 words, and sent by email to: clinicalmedicine{at}rcplondon.ac.uk
- © 2011 Royal College of Physicians
Reference
- ↵
- Marinker M.
Article Tools
Citation Manager Formats
Jump to section
Related Articles
- No related articles found.
Cited By...
- No citing articles found.