TY - JOUR T1 - The über-GP: an exploration of clinical excellence, leadership, and patient-centred care in general practice JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 218 LP - 220 DO - 10.3399/bjgp11X561258 VL - 61 IS - 584 AU - Mayur Lakhani Y1 - 2011/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/61/584/218.abstract N2 - On 20 December 1952, the British Medical Journal announced the foundation of a college of GPs, now the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).1 The College had a strong vision for general practice. A singular achievement was vocational training.2 Sir James Mackenzie would have been proud of this, as he had himself advocated special training for GPs. There has been immense progress since then. We now have one of the finest systems of general practice in the world:259 million consultations every year and rising;1.5 million prescriptions issued every day;90% of the work of the NHS done in primary care;impressive levels of patient satisfaction of 91%;high levels of trust in GPs;a prized new specialist training and assessment system;research in primary care that is rated as world class; andover one-third of all practices involved in teaching medical students.There are also examples of the professionalism of individual GPs up and down the country: the GP who has made that early diagnosis of meningitis in a baby and the GP who deals with the frail older patient with heart failure.Concerns about the futureThere is much to celebrate but we have more work to do. As a practising doctor, I want to do more for my patients. There is much more that we can, and need to do. Take some examples: Mrs Patel is 66, she is distressed, she is crying because she is dying from advanced bladder cancer; her GP failed to diagnose the cancer early enough. Mrs Jones is 86 and has complex multiple medical conditions; her health is declining. She has repeated hospital admissions and multiple referrals without any obvious medical benefit. Actually, she is dying and approaching the end of her life but this goes unrecognised in the health system. People are … ER -