Nurses could be GPs – claim

Nurses should become the "front-line" providers of primary care, an academic claims today.

Patients could always see a nurse first and be referred to a GP, acting as a primary care consultant, for more complex conditions, according to an article in the British Medical Journal.

Professor Bonnie Sibald, a health services research specialist at Manchester University, claims GPs are frequently "duplicating" nurse services and their skills should be used for more complex health problems.

Leicester GP Dr Rhona Knight challenges the proposal in the same journal, in articles published on-line.

She says if nurses are to take over GP roles they should undertake a graduate medical course.

Dr Knight argues: "A lack of nationally agreed standards means that nurses have varied roles with inconsistent training, knowledge, experience and titles.

"Nurses would need increased training and a similar curriculum to GPs to be able to take the lead in dealing with all illnesses."

According to Dr Knight, GP training takes ten years whilst advanced nurse training may involved just 500 hours.

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