Seymour Medical Practice W/E

I had another two days of work experience last week at another General Practice in Bristol but this time in Easton rather than Hartcliffe.

It was very ineteresting to see the difference between the two Practices in terms of the way that they were run but also the cohort of patients that they had on their books. In Easton the patients were mainly of Caribbean, Central African or Indian origin opposed to the white cohort in Harcliffe. The issues that arose from the patients were also very different in Easton with less depression and long term illness but more cancers and varied illnesses. Due to there being a large number of African and Caribbean patients there was a lot of Prostate Cancer in the male patients, as the incidence of prostate cance is higher in black men than those of other ethnicities (http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html) with a lot of men coming in for the latter end of their courses of injections to control the cancer. 

There were a number of ethical situations raised in my time there. For example there were issues to do with the taking of medication and one man had not been taking it for some weeks, ignoring the doctors advice that it would be beneficial to his health. As it is not possible to force someone to take their tablets the doctor therefore gave a balanced argument for and against why he should take his pills and gave him the choice based on the data from drug trials and the discussion that they had had as to whether he should now continue with the drugs.

Another example was where someone was suspected of having lung cancer having spread from another part of his body, which he had already had operations for. It was then discussed whether he would like to attempt another operation to remove this next tumor which could soon be fatal. But he wished not to have any more surgery for the time being and wanted to try alternative herbal medicines. He thought that maybe this would be better than conventional medicine, as he had once seen someone get better on them and also believed in miracles. The doctor once again gave a balanced argument as to the benefits and risks of these medicines and gave the facts of the lack of data to suggest that they work efficiently and effectively in all patients.

I also spent time with one of the practice nurses who was in charge of the 'Stop Smoking' programme at the practice and consultations to do with malaria tablets and the options available and also asthma check ups.

It was just like Hillview Medical Practice in terms of the volume of patients through the doors every day and the number of patients on the books, but it was very evident as to the differences between the two practices in terms of the people that attended and the different sort of issues that they brought with them.