What do you do when you find yourself or a family member come down with sudden flu, body ache, rashes, or other common problems? Most of the time, you rush to the emergency room. However, having a family physician can prevent you from sudden panic and act promptly with correct suggestions.
Apart from having someone available during a medical emergency, a family doctor is the best person to take care of all common health issues like the common cold, flu, and viral fever. Therefore, a family medical clinic should be the primary contact point whenever someone falls sick at home.
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What are the 5 main reasons to have a family doctor?
Here are the most fundamental reasons why you should have a family doctor:
1. They already know your family history
When you rush to an urgent care doctor, he does not always have the time to analyze your family’s health history. However, a family physician will be devoting more time and look into the details of the same. Moreover, they will take a look at several generations’ health history to diagnose you more accurately.
The primary reason for such thorough analysis is to find out whether you are already allergic to something or prone to some genetic risks. For example, if your predecessors had heart problems, you may be at risk of developing the same. Hence, your family doctor may be proactive in their approach to avoid such risks.
2. They are medical experts
Rushing to the emergency room for minor health issues is unnecessary and expensive too. Instead, family doctors who perform annual checkups for your family are already aware of health issues you go through.
They can best manage conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, chronic pain, and heart problems. Moreover, they can help you in sensitive matters such as strep throat and sinus and seasonal infections.
Family doctors can perform minor surgeries and diagnostic too, such as:
- Excision of lesions and biopsies
- Palliative care
- Treating abscesses
- Norplant placement
- Circumcision and vasectomy
- Prenatal and postpartum issues
- Colposcopy and sigmoidoscopy
- Pediatric issues
3. Saves you money
Visiting primary care or family physician is a lot more affordable in cases of chronic health care issues. They always offer you cost-effective services, unlike in emergency rooms, where there are only urgent care physicians. Therefore, you can save up a lot from your annual health budget. Besides, you don’t have to visit a specialist for a chronic problem or seasonal flu symptoms.
4. They can refer you to a specialist
When you go to a family physician and realizes that a problem needs a specialist’s attention, he will immediately refer you to the best one. Moreover, he will brief the specialist regarding your treatment history or any other similar detail. As a result, it will become more comfortable for the specialist to treat you in a better way.
Suppose you have an elderly in your house, and he/she needs daycare services for comprehensive treatment and wellbeing. Similarly, your young kids attending daycare will require the name of your family doctor so that if there a medical emergency your daycare service provider can contact them. You can always ask your family doctor to give you names of care homes perfect for them.
People who are already in the business will have the right contacts and recommend you the same. Moreover, someone who has been treating the elderly in your house will know what he/she needs best.
5. Long-term care
You can always establish a good long-term relationship with your family physician. It is because you can rely on him for every health emergency at any time. Plus, there is a sense of stability that ensures you that everything will be alright.
A family physician is also a friend and guide for all those times when you are feeling unwell. So, you must not pop in medicine without knowledge. Instead, please consult with your family physician and let him prescribe you some essential medication.
