How does the role of GP doctor differ from that of a hospital doctor?
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The GP is responsible for looking after the general health of their patients and for treating common ailments that do not require specialized diagnosis, equipment, drugs, surgery or other treatment.
When a patient comes to them with conditions that require more specialized care they refer the patient to an appropriate specialist with niche training and experience for the specific issue.
In a hospital setting the ER doctors are somewhat analogous to a GP in that they see a wide range of conditions across the spectrum of medical conditions, albeit with a focus on acute injury and/or developments in diseases. Their job is to stabilize, treat the acute condition if possible and refer to a specialist for follow up care.
In systems like the NHS (UK) and HMO insurance (US) they also serve as gatekeepers to in-demand and expensive specialist care so that specialist resources aren’t taken up by someone who doesn’t actually need them.
A GP, general practitioner, is not so much a “thing” in medicine anymore (in the US), but I will assume what you mean is something like a primary care physician — a doctor that sees you in a doctor’s office and takes care of your general healthcare needs. These are doctors that trained in a primary care specialty (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics) and typically have a panel of patients who they see annually and/or as needed by the patient. They are responsible for a person’s preventive care and often manage their chronic health conditions if the patient does not see a specialist.
A hospital doctor has undergone the same training that a primary care physician has (undergraduate + medical school + residency), and sometimes undertake additional training in hospital medicine, called a hospitalist fellowship, though this isn’t required. They see patients while they are in the hospital, so they don’t have a panel of patients the way a primary care doctor would. They treat the patient until the patient can be discharged from the hospital. It is typically much shorter term care than a primary care physician would perform.
There are some doctors that do both medicine in an office (or “outpatient”) and see patients in the hospital, typically depending on what kind of medical specialty they are in. Like I said above, this answer is from an American perspective, and healthcare operates differently in other countries.
Acute care (hospital) versus preventative care (GP/primary.)
The goals are pretty simple. Acute care is meant to get you out of the crisis state that you are in and preventative is self explanatory.
Most hospital doctors specialise in one particular area. GPs tend to be more of a screening/signposting service. So the GP works out a likely cause of your symptoms, then sends you to see the relevant specialist at the hospital who is the person that diagnoses and treats you
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