How does the role of GP doctor differ from that of a hospital doctor?

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How does the role of GP doctor differ from that of a hospital doctor?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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.

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