Letter

Australian general practice at a fork in the road: which way forward? (In reply)

MJA 2001; 175: 667

To qualify as a specialty, a branch of medicine needs to have a unique body of knowledge and techniques which are sustained and expanded by its members. Unfortunately, general practice lags behind other specialties in these requirements.^2,3 It is depressing that the call for general practice to develop and enhance its educational and research programs occasioned "the greatest hoots of laughter" from Rogers and his fellow GPs. This destructive ethos persists in general practice, to its own detriment.

In my editorial,⁴ I suggested that the trend to corporatisation in general practice presents an opportunity to address the lack of time, lack of critical mass and lack of recognition that are barriers to effective research in this field.⁵ If GP corporatisation simply replicates the current culture and barriers to research on a larger scale, what is the gain?

Rogers' question "what has been done about it [research]?" reflects a passive approach — "important, but not my problem", "someone should do it, but not me". Unless research and education become the business of every GP, general practice as a specialty is in danger of disintegrating into multiple craft groups, not necesarily medically based. Such a development is certainly not a cause for hoots of laughter.

Martin B Van Der Weyden
Editor, The Medical Journal of Australia,
Private Bag 901, North Sydney, NSW 2059.

1. Perkins RJ, Petrie KJ, Alley PG, et al. Health service reform: the perceptions of medical specialists in Australia (NSW), the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Med J Aust 1977; 167: 201-204.
2. Van Der Weyden MB. Promoting an evidence base for general practice [editorial]. Med J Aust 1999; 171: 60-61.
3. McAvoy B. General practice research. Aust Fam Physician 2001; 30: 175-176.
4. Van Der Weyden MB. Australian general practice at a fork in the road: which way forward? [editorial]. Med J Aust 2001; 175: 62-63.
5. Kljakovic M. Flourishing research in academic general practice. NZ Fam Physician 1998; 25: 35-40.

©MJA 2001
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