{"id":147858,"date":"2018-06-28T23:35:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T23:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/seeing-the-same-doctor-over-time-lowers-death-rates\/"},"modified":"2018-06-28T23:35:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T23:35:54","slug":"seeing-the-same-doctor-over-time-lowers-death-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/seeing-the-same-doctor-over-time-lowers-death-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the same doctor over time &#8216;lowers death rates&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A doctor talking to her patient\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/180E6\/production\/_102243589_gettyimages-689956326.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Getty Images<figcaption>Image caption                                      Repeated contact with the same doctor can be beneficial in many ways                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Patients who see the same doctor again and again have lower death rates, a study suggests.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits applied to visits to GPs and specialists and were seen across different cultures and health systems.<\/p>\n<p>University of Exeter researchers said the human aspect of medical practice was &quot;potentially life-saving&quot; but had been neglected. <\/p>\n<p>GPs&#039; leaders said they recognised the value of patients seeing &quot;their own&quot; doctor.<\/p>\n<p>Because of intense workforce pressures, however, this could mean waiting even longer for an appointment, the Royal College of GPs said.<\/p>\n<p>Continuity of care is known to be particularly beneficial for patients with chronic conditions, long-term mental health issues and complex needs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NHS offers smartphone GP appointments<\/li>\n<li>Satisfaction with GP services at record low<\/li>\n<li>What will the NHS look like at 100 years old?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The study, published in BMJ Open, analysed the results of 22 studies in nine countries, including England, France, US, Canada and South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Eighteen of the studies found indicated contact with the same doctor over an average of two years meant fewer deaths over the periods studied, compared with other patients. <\/p>\n<p>The researchers said continuity of care was important and should be given a higher priority in healthcare planning.<\/p>\n<h2>&#039;Better communication&#039;<\/h2>\n<p>Prof Philip Evans, from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: &quot;Continuity of care happens when a patient and a doctor see each other repeatedly and get to know each other.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This leads to better communication, patient satisfaction, adherence to medical advice and much lower use of hospital services.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Sir Denis Pereira Gray, from St Leonard&#039;s GP practice in Exeter, who also worked on the study, said: &quot;Patients have long known that it matters which doctor they see and how well they can communicate with them.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Until now, arranging for patients to see the doctor of their choice has been considered a matter of convenience or courtesy.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Now, it is clear it is about the quality of medical practice and is literally &#039;a matter of life and death&#039;.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Team effort<\/h2>\n<p>Prof Kamila Hawthorne, vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said many practices were trying out different approaches such as patients being assigned a team of healthcare professionals, including a GP, who had access to their records and could build relationships with them.<\/p>\n<p>She said: &quot;Balancing continuity of care with timely access to GP services is a huge challenge for general practice. And ultimately the answer is more GPs and more resources for the profession.<\/p>\n<p>NHS England has pledged \u00a32.4bn extra a year for general practice and 5,000 more GPs by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The RCGP said these must be delivered to safeguard the future of general practice and patient care. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty ImagesImage caption Repeated contact with the same doctor can be beneficial in many ways Patients who see the same doctor again and again have lower death rates,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}