General practitioner

A general practitioner (GP), family physician or family practitioner (FP) is a physician/medical doctor who provides primary care. A GP/FP treats acute and chronic illnesses, provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. Some also care for hospitalized patients, do minor surgery and/or obstetrics, where they have hospital privileges. However, in the past, they were required to do much more important surgeries, such as tonsillectomies, hernia repairs, and appendectomies. For instance, it was common for a General Practitioner to operate if a patient had an extremely painful hernia, or an acute appendicitis. Frequently, they will remove minor skin lesions surgically. There has been a steady decrease in family physicians in the last few decades, due to the long work hours and little pay compared to most specialists. The term general practitioner is common in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, where the word "physician" is only used for certain specialists and not for GPs.