I managed to secure a Leonardo grant with the help of the RCGP Junior International Committee, as part of the Hippokrates Exchange Programme. It was a fantastic experience to spend 2 weeks in Bucharest, Romania from May to June this year with a GP with a special interest in psychology. Dr Efrim and the nurse were the only people running the practice; no administrative staff and no practice manager. The nurse was doing paperwork most of the time and I felt that the role of the nurse was undervalued, and she was losing her clinical skills by doing more of a clerical job. The standard appointment time was 15 minutes.
Dr Efrim was happy to deal with multiple health complaints in one consultation, so the surgery frequently overran. The patients didn’t mind waiting their turn, as they were using the opportunity to chat between themselves, and turn it into a social event.
The atmosphere during the consultation was relaxed and, in most of the cases, there was a paternalistic doctor–patient relationship. During my stay in Bucharest, I attended ‘Urgemed’, a national conference for family doctors. The opening topic was about telemedicine, which has been very successfully applied in emergency care, using fully-equipped ambulances which allow a doctor to consult via a webcam from remote Romanian locations.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2013