ABSTRACT

Examples of such shared care would be GP clinics in diabetes or in asthma. Some GPs do not wish to participate actively in the care of patients with diabetes; others will run regular diabetes clinics at the surgery but share care with the local hospital diabetes clinic; yet other GPs may wish to take on the entire care of uncomplicated diabetes. A similar scenario may exist with asthma. However, there are few GPs who would undertake the care of children with diabetes on a regular basis, as the number of children with diabetes in a particular GP practice is very small, hence the GP will have relatively little experience in looking after such children. This may be contrasted with asthma. Many children develop asthma, indeed the incidence of asthma in the schoolage population is increasing. It is, therefore, perfectly acceptable for GPs to take on the care of children with asthma as it is so common and GPs are well experienced in its care. However, having made the decision to take on the care of specific patients, be they adults or children, with a particular disease then it is expected that the GP would have equal knowledge of that disease to that of a hospital-based consultant. In this instance, therefore, any medico-legal discussions would compare the GP with the specialist hospital consultant and not with the GP’s own peers.