MEDICAL professionals are calling for residents to have their own general practitioner to ease the stress on hospitals and ensure patient health.

Tweed Byron acting director of medical services, Dr Duncan Stuart, and Tweed Byron renal specialist, Dr Mohamed Khafaji, both have experience in the GP field.

“The GP is in the best position to have a comprehensive idea of a patient's health risks,” Dr Stuart said.

“Our concern is a lot of patients change doctors regularly and this is a real problem.”

Dr Khafaji has worked in New Zealand and believes Australia could learn a lot from the NZ health system.

“The GP is quite involved in the psychological and social aspects of the patient because they look after them long-term and know the patient's family history,” Dr Khafaji said.

“The problem is when the patient goes into emergency they would be concentrating on a single illness.

"It is extremely beneficial for every patient to have one doctor who is basically the gate keeper.

“In New Zealand they have built primary health organisations where the patients visit the same doctor regularly and they only pay around $5 per visit.”

Dr Stuart said the term “gate keeper” was often used in the medical profession.

“There are many specialists, but it can be a bad thing when a patient goes directly to one.

"They will only look at a very small part of your body,” Dr Stuart said.

“Only the GP has that general overall training to look at the whole person.

“GPs are called the gate keeper because they open the gate to that specialist.

"It is not true you need to go straight to a specialist.

"It is just a waste of your time, their time and in some cases will lead to less than appropriate care.”

Dr Stuart said New Zealand had put financial incentives in place to send a strong message to patients about the importance of having their own GP.

“That does not exist in this country. The bottom line is only a medical GP can take a comprehensive overview of psychical and mental health,” Dr Stuart said.

“Many diseases are caused by stress, depression and alcohol abuse and these are part of mental health.

“When people go to a 24-hour medical centre those doctors don't have the time to take enough details.

"Quite frankly they are not paid enough to take all the history.”

Dr Khafaji and Dr Stuart said general practices need to ensure they had open appointments available to patients.

“Sometimes patients cannot walk into the practice and see the same GP all the time,” Dr Khafaji said.

“As long as patients visit the same medical centre, even if they don't see the same GP the doctor will have their medical record.

“It's all about patient care, and the only way to do that is by finding a good GP.”