ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what patients are looking for from their general practitioners (GP). Although the world is changing, certain key values persist, and there is a clear place for the role of the family doctor. The chapter describes the results of a research project that was undertaken jointly between a trust and a community health council. Trust is at the heart of the doctor-patient relationship. This relationship is unequal in that the store of professional knowledge is held by the doctor. The professional accountability of nurses is different, as it is designed to meet different purposes. The inability of National Health Service (NHS) planners to move GPs to under-doctored areas has long been known, and is encapsulated by Julian Tudor Hart’s Inverse Care Law. If a needy part of the population is under-served by doctors, then the NHS must find alternative means to deliver care.
