I guess it sounds obvious, but if someone is asking a specialist question, then it should go to the specialist. It feels like a waste of time to ask the GP to be the secretary/middleman, and a waste of resources.
Completely agree - but the frustration is we often get patients presenting to us in this very fashion. To play devils advocate, if we had a patient with worsening angina, we'd increase their meds and make arrangements for a cardiology opinion - but for dental issues, I'd imagine most of us deal with the pain/acute issue and pass the onus to the patient to contact their dentist (which some don't given that they didn't in the first place).
@@DorkyDocs I understand, however that is in the case of a patient not knowing what to do. I meant more so in the fashion that our dental colleagues should know who to contact rather than giving misinformation to patients to ask their GP. It delays management for the patient, can make GPs looks less knowledgeable ("the GP had to ask the specialist", when it isn't GP knowledge in the first place) and the patient has to ferry back and forth between the dentist, GP and specialist. There is guidance for dentists on dental work for certain health conditions/medications for this very reason.
I guess it sounds obvious, but if someone is asking a specialist question, then it should go to the specialist. It feels like a waste of time to ask the GP to be the secretary/middleman, and a waste of resources.
Completely agree - but the frustration is we often get patients presenting to us in this very fashion. To play devils advocate, if we had a patient with worsening angina, we'd increase their meds and make arrangements for a cardiology opinion - but for dental issues, I'd imagine most of us deal with the pain/acute issue and pass the onus to the patient to contact their dentist (which some don't given that they didn't in the first place).
@@DorkyDocs I understand, however that is in the case of a patient not knowing what to do. I meant more so in the fashion that our dental colleagues should know who to contact rather than giving misinformation to patients to ask their GP. It delays management for the patient, can make GPs looks less knowledgeable ("the GP had to ask the specialist", when it isn't GP knowledge in the first place) and the patient has to ferry back and forth between the dentist, GP and specialist. There is guidance for dentists on dental work for certain health conditions/medications for this very reason.
Singing from the same hymn sheet - essentially what I stated in the podcast.