ABSTRACT

BARD is different from other and established models of the family medicine consultation. Patient-centredness is at the heart of medicine. It is a core value of our discipline, recognised as the best way of helping an individual promote, preserve and restore their integrity of health. Family doctors should not be obliged to obey without question what their patients tell them any more than patients should be obliged to obey their family doctor. By accepting that the participants are human, a BARD consultation is one in which both participants can flourish. A defining feature of family doctors is that they aspire to address the primary care needs of their patients. The work they do is mainly demand led, and their purpose is to deal with any issue that a patient chooses to present to them. The principles that a family doctor uses, and the priority that is given to those principles, are both situation-specific.