2019 sees the release of the RCGP and Society for Academic Primary Care’s document on Teaching General Practice: Guiding Principles for Undergraduate General Practice curricula in UK Medical Schools (https://sapc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/rcgp-curriculum-guidance-oct-2018.pdf). In this document, the core principles of how General Practice should be taught to ALL medical students is set out. This is a landmark document that, in my opinion as a GP and GP Trainer, that paves the way forwards for General Practice as a Specialty in it’s own right in the UK, covering novel areas that have changed to become contemporary and relevant in all aspects of health and should be covered in Medical Education today. This will no doubt produce doctors of a higher calibre who will be able to see the merits of things beyond just the conventional biological investigations and treatment of disease.
The Curriculum has the core principles of Person-Centred Care, Population-centred care, and Efficiency of General Practice that run throughout. There are so many principles that are mentioned that we see as important to medicine. This is especially so when considering areas Integrated Health has a part to play. I would like to point out how the guidance suggests teaching ‘Holistic care and the biopsychosocial paradigm’ which is further emphasised in the next point they make on ‘The Physiological basis for linking psychosocial processes with biological aspects of disease’. This is interesting, contemporary, and relevant in Medicine. Could conventional medical schools actually be teaching how diseases are finally connected to psychosocial processes? Could the principles that we feel underlie Integrated health of Psychoneuroimmunology, the Placebo Effect, Epigenetics, and Neuroplasticity be finally taught. The evidence certainly is there and growing for how things like Exercise, Nutrition and Mindfulness can help in all aspects of health.
It doesn’t end there. The document goes on to specifically name Social Prescribing, pioneered by the College of Medicine as one of the core areas that has to be taught.
One slightly ambiguous area which may promote Integrated Health is it mentions the use of ‘Integrated Practice’ to be taught in the management of Acute and Chronic conditions. From my viewpoint, this may be related to how in General Practice we do recommend certain treatments outside convention but are growing in evidence, like mindfulness meditation, yoga, massage, acupuncture for some acute and chronic conditions.
The question now is: How and when is this document going to be put into practice? If all medical schools begin teaching their students this curriculum, could we see the sea of change long awaited by many of us already practising integrated health in primary care? We certainly hope so. Perhaps you can help by spreading the word of this document far and wide to encourage an uptake of these recommendations. Certainly, for many working GPs like myself, it certainly highlights how specialised General Practice is in its own right, and how we can lead medicine forwards for tomorrow.
Views expressed are the authors personal views
Dr Toh WongGP & Convention Organiser of the Integrative Health Convention
https://integrativehealthconvention.co.uk/
