TY - JOUR T1 - But there are no QOF points for Balint work!: Its place in modern practice JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 858 LP - 859 DO - 10.3399/bjgp10X539380 VL - 60 IS - 580 AU - Dan Edgcumbe Y1 - 2010/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/60/580/858.abstract N2 - ‘If someone stood up in a crowdAnd raised his voice up way out loudAnd waved his armAnd shook his legYou’d notice him.If someone in a movie showYelled “fire in the second row,This whole place is a powder keg!”You’d notice him.And even without clucking like a henEveryone gets noticed, now and then,Unless, of course that personageshould beInvisible, inconsequential me.’Just as Mr Cellophane in the musical Chicago (Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville, Fred Ebb, 1975) bemoaned his apparent invisibility, many of our patients have an equally hard time. Their appointment may be towards the end of a long morning surgery, during which time thoughts are turning from the surgery to the impending home visits (or even in a few lucky practices, to lunch!).This did not escape Norell either, who writing in While I’m here, doctor,1 pleaded:‘Understand your patients if you can; love them if you must; but for Heaven’s sake, notice them’.How is a modern doctor to notice his patients with the many distractions on offer? There is the intrusiveness of the externalised agenda with QOF targets flashing up on the computer screen, and prescribing warnings when a medication is deemed too expensive. Then there is the increased demand, with higher consulting rates. Patients’ problems are more complicated as well, with a greater range of treatments and technologies on offer. … ER -