what is a general medical practitioner?

Answer 1

In the US, a "GP", or general practitioner, is a licensed medical doctor who has completed just the internship (one year) after medical school. GPs are not family practitioners, who complete a three-year residency. A GP is trained to refer to specialists, and also care for patients with everyday ailments.

Answer 2

Ria,the term 'general ' also means 'whole'...Rightly so, general medical practitioner is suppose examine any part of the body ailment and prescribe medicine for the same.Now, the minimum qualification required for a general medical practitioner is a MBBS.

A specialist too has a MBBS degree but has opted to specilize in certain areas. eg,
.... heart - cardiologist
.... brain - neurologist
.... bones- orthopedic

Which means, when one has some small ailments one is suppose to go to a general medical practitioner. But when a specilized treatment is required, a general medical practitioner is not qualified to handle such cases.

One can specialize in medicine by doing a post graduate course in medicine i.e the Masters degree...which is done after the completion of MBBS course.ie. MS or MD.

Not that a specialist does not have knowledge of all parts of body or he or she is not capable to give you medicines for cold or fever and so on... why would a person suffering from common cold go to a neuro-surgeon when one can easily go to a general medical practioner who charge much less than a specialist.

Answer 3

GMP are qualified doctors with basic degree (graduates in any discipline like MBBS, BHMS, BDS, BAMS etc) They are not specialised but diagnose & prescribe medicines for all medical problems/day to day problems such as , cough & cold, fever, body pain, small surgeries, & so many others. In case of some severe problem they may ask u to do certain basic examinations & based on those results if the severity is more he may refer the case to a particular specialist.

Answer 4

Before the days of specialisation, the term used was RMP (Registered Medical Practitioner) and he served the society to the best of his abilities. An expert in those days, the specialist was referred to ENT Specialist(Ear, nose and Throat), but now with the changing levels of education, even an MBBS thinks of doing MD/MS.

Answer 5

Gen medical practitioner are doctors who have little knowledge of all parts of the body, and he prescribes medicines which are also gen in nature eg cold , cough, fever, minor injuries, and other first aid services. He does not posses full knowledge of any part of body.
Where as a specialist has lesser knowledge of all the parts of body but he has detail (full) knowledge of very small part of the body too.
That makes the difference