Social care and the role of the general practitioner

Abstract

United Kingdom general practice is taken as a case study of the way in which new areas of concern come to be seen as within the sphere of competence of doctors. In defining the themes of general practice, prominent U.K. practitioners have pointed to a social orientation which distinguishes general practice from other areas of medicine. This loosely defined social orientation appears to include several themes. On the one hand there is an awareness of social relationships, social factors in disease and illness behaviour, and of the social causes of disease, and on the other, a feeling for a responsibility for caring for the social consequences of diseases, for social welfare problems, and for socio- or psychotherapeutic care. An involvement in social care raises certain questions about the role of the general practitioner which have not been explored by those doctors who have discussed this social orientation. At one level there are practical problems of the conflict between the provision of medical and social care and the relationship with other care workers, but at a more basic level there is a fundamental question concerning our socio-political approach to social problems.