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All human life is here
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By Michael Woodhead, 6minutes editor
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 To Melbourne this week to attend the RACGP annual conference, which left me feeling slightly depressed. Not because of the Melbourne weather, which lived up to its 'four seasons in one day' reputation, but because the conference exposed my ignorance about the sheer breadth and depth of general practice.
Despite writing about primary care for some years, the presentations at the conference program brought home to me that there are huge areas of general practice about which I know little, and of which I am likely to remain in the dark about. To borrow an old tabloid slogan, 'All human life (and death) is here'.
And I'm not talking about obscure academic reports, but stories from everyday practice and real human interest.
I learned, for example, that two thirds of Australians have more than one doctor whom they consider 'their' GP, while 12% of kids don't have any GP at all.
I learned that some patients describe post herpetic neuralgia as more painful than childbirth, and yet there is only one published paper on its treatment in primary care.
And at the conference dinner I learned that GPs should never consider going on So You Think You Can Dance.
As with many medical conferences, the programme was so packed that they had up to eight sessions running concurrently.
This meant that while sitting fascinated by one speaker, I always had the niggling feeling that I was missing something else of interest and the constant session hopping. Many of the talks had the theme of 'what really works in practice' as part of the title.
And during the morning tea and lunch breaks I heard the real, unedited stories from general practice, both optimistic and pessimistic. What comes over more than anything else is the sheer enthusiasm and concern about primary care held by so many people: not just doctors, but spouses, nurses, practice managers. As others have noted - it's not so much a job as a vocation.
What a pity our Federal health minister Nicola Roxon couldn't find time to drop in on the conference, just a few km down the road from her electorate office in Maribyrnong. That would have been instructive in light of her recent comments about GPs allegedly needing to "eschew less complex work and focus on the work that does require their high skill level and expertise."
For someone who is forever talking about measuring the quality of care, there was plenty of quality on offer at the conference.
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