Profile of a"Five-star Doctor"

Profile of "A Five-star Doctor"

(Adapted from Charles Boelen, WHO 1994- courtesy JIMA, July 2009)

• Care Provider, who considers the patient holistically as an individual and as an integral part of a family and the community, and provides high quality, comprehensive, continuous and personalised care within a long term relationship based on trust.
• Decision maker, who chooses which technologies to apply ethically and cost-effectively while enhancing the care he or she provides.
• Communicator, who is able to promote healthy lifestyles by effective explanation and advocacy, thereby empowering individuals and groups to enhance and protect their health.
• Community leader, who having won the trust of the people among whom he or she works, can reconcile individual and community health requirements and initiate action on behalf of the community.
• Manager, who can work harmoniously with individuals and organisations inside outside the health system to meet the needs of patients and communities, making appropriate use of available health data.

The Roles of the Family Physician:

1. First contact care- accessible, available, affordable & effective primary care to the community.
2. Personalized care- The family physician provides personalized care to the patients and their families because of the close & personal relationship that exists between the doctor & the patients & their families over a long period of time. The family physician knows the patients in their own environment.
3. Continuity of care- The family physician provides continuity of care by caring the patients & their families for many years. The family physician considers the patients as the continuum of care & the disease as the episode, unlike in a hospital setting where the disease is the continuum and the episode is the patient.
4. Comprehensive care- Comprehensive care means making an assessment of the patient's problem in physical, emotional and social terms and managing the patient as an individual in the family and community, using both curative and preventive measures.
5. Preventive care- Primary prevention in terms of health education, immunisation, family planning etc. Secondary prevention by early diagnosis & treatment.Tertiary prevention by providing restorative, rehabilitative & follow up care.
6. Co-ordination of care- Family physicians have an important role to play in making use of all health care resources for the benefit of the patient.

"The doctor is the most powerful drug in the general practice." - Michael Balint