Tennis elbow, abdominal pain or knee pain. Sometimes doing nothing is the best treatment. Researchers from Radboudumc, in collaboration with the Netherlands College of General Practitioners (NHC), have examined a large number of general practitioner guidelines.
The researchers found that hundreds of treatments performed by the general practitioner are unnecessary. In total, the university hospital and the NHC jointly made 385 recommendations, the top 30 of which are published in the professional journal BMC Primary Care.
unnecessary care
The recommendations revolve around care that does not help patients, but can cause unpleasant side effects. An X-ray for tennis elbow or a painful knee, for example. But also laboratory research for diarrhea and antibiotic ointment for a red eye.
General practitioner Toosje Valkenburg did not cooperate in compiling the list herself, but does say that general practitioner guidelines have been looked at in a good way.
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Waiting for ailments
“It is a boost for the patient and doctor to make it clear that some ailments can really have their time,” says the doctor. “With certain ailments, healing really can’t go faster with surgery.”
According to Valkenburg, it is therefore not necessary to contact the general practitioner with every complaint. “If you don’t need a doctor, don’t go there,” she says.
‘Have a little more confidence’
“You don’t have to go to the doctor right away, especially with the flu and infectious diseases. You can really see how things are going for 2 to 3 days. The flu doesn’t go away when I declare my victory over it. People should really have a little more confidence that it’s going to be okay.”
Some people like to go to the doctor and be reassured. But according to Valkenburg, patients also have to take into account the workload in the practice. “Due to the current staff pressure, we simply have a capacity problem. So then it becomes a bit of a choice how the capacity is distributed.”
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reassurance
Valkenburg therefore advises patients to first check, for example, Thuisarts.nl. “Get some information on that first.”
“If you then think: ‘I can’t figure it out anyway’, then the GP is the right person. If the GP has taken everything into consideration and comes to the conclusion that he can’t do anything with it, then you hope that the reassurance there.”