4 LISTENER AUGUST 24 2019
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a day online. A study cited in
the weekend Melbourne Age
recorded a figure of up to 9
hours a day for the same 14-
age group, but, more impor-
tantly, 97% of the content
viewed was “insignificant”.
We are fortunate to live in
an age when there is a simple
100%-effective cure, and it’s
very often to be found at the
top right corner of the phone
body: the off switch.
Geoffrey Horne
(Roseneath, Wellington)
PHARMACIES’ “RESCUE” REMEDY
Ian McMichael (Letters, August
17) suggests pharmacies
should be the first port of
call for patients with medical
issues. I would suggest this
would be my last call.
Pharmacies I visit have
aisles of very dubious “health”
supplements that are actively
pushed by the staff, including
the pharmacist.
But pharmacists can’t have it
both ways: you are either pro-
viders of accepted best-practice
medical advice or quacks.
Which is it to be?
B Newton
(Dunedin)
COVER GIRL GOING STRONG
Congratulations for compiling
the excellent 80th anniversary
edition of the Listener (August
10).
Your readers may be
A day in the
life of a GP
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I was disappointed to read the
comments by former Health
Workforce NZ chairman Des
Gorman (“Who you gonna
call?”, August 17), who implies
the new generation of GPs
are lazy, choosing to work
part-time and “cherry-picking”
patients so they don’t get the
complex, difficult ones. This,
he says, compounds the over-
all shortage of GPs.
Medicine has become more
complex and patients have
multiple problems and medi-
cations to juggle. Hospitals
are overwhelmed by their
workloads, so such things as
prostate-cancer monitoring
and blood-count monitor-
ing for myeloma, to mention
just two, that were previously
managed in hospital clinics are
now in GP land.
There is poverty that we
have never seen before that
somehow we have to co-
ordinate services for. For
instance, last week, I had a
chap weighing 170kg come
into my room with his Work &
Income support worker talking
about his barriers to getting
into work. I stated the obvi-
ous that until he lost weight
and could be more mobile, it
would be difficult to get a job,
and we started talking about
diet and lifestyle. It was then I
heard that he slept in a car and
cooked on a Primus.
For every four-hour session
I work, I would do two hours’
paperwork, mostly online at
home. We are generalists and
need to keep up with a vast
amount of reading, confer-
ences and courses to stay
current.
As for cherry-picking
patients and not enrolling
”frequent flyers”, how do you
know their health history
unless you enrol them? Once
enrolled, you have to have a
solid reason and lengthy legal
process to unenrol them.
I would like to invite Profes-
sor Gorman to come and sit
with me for a day and see how
the face of general practice has
changed. He could then come
home for a quick dinner and
sit in my home office while I
make phone calls and do paper
work or watch an educational
online video.
Dr Sandie Moss
(Whangamatā)
As a GP of over 30 years’ stand-
ing, I was naturally interested
to read the article on my
specialty’s demise.
What general practitioners
trying to cope with change
for ourselves and our patients
don’t need are the tired old
tropes that Des Gorman, who
is not and hasn’t been a GP,
always trots out in whatever
position he has most recently
been put to talk about our
workforce.
How dare he dismissively
say we work three and a half
days a week and pick and
choose enrolments? We are
caned if we charge fees – but
also if we accept capitation so
our patients receive lower fees.
We cannot pick and choose
our patients. Like many GPs
I know, I have a caseload of
2500 patients – not because
I need the money or want
the workload, but because for
many people, an overworked
GP is better than no GP at all.
Dr Pippa MacKay
(Christchurch)
Des Gorman’s implication that
GPs need to work harder and
longer hours is unhelpful and
concerning and almost seems
like victim-blaming. GPs did
not create the present mess
but we are certainly asking for
help. Sadly, it seems it’s falling
on deaf political ears.
Dr Geoff Cunningham
(Whangārei)
If we wish to improve the
health of New Zealanders,
it will be by addressing the
socio-economic and cultural
factors affecting health. It will
not be by replacing highly
trained and experienced GPs,
and the holistic multidiscipli-
nary teams they work in, with
McDonald’s-style checkout
operators. If that’s what we
think general practice is, no
wonder new graduates are
staying away.
Dr Vivienne Coppell
(Mt Cook, Wellington)
TURN OFF, TUNE IN
“Greater expectations”
(August 17) in part deals with
a challenge with an unusually
simple answer. The article cites
a study by Netsafe showing
that a third of students spend
on average four or more hours
The winner will
receive an immune
system supplement
with bee propolis
and reishi
mushroom from
Mānuka Health.
Letter of the week