General practitioners with a special clinical interest: a model for improving respiratory disease management

Health care technology is continuously moving forward with great advances in all fields of medicine. The way in which health care is delivered has been stuck in a primary care/secondary care model, which is failing to meet patients' needs. Existing structures are inefficient because they do not maximise use of skills. A new way of delivering services is proposed using an intermediate level specialist--a general practitioner with a special clinical interest (GPSCI), to increase access at a location close to the patient while giving support to the wider primary health community. We explore how the role of GPSCI might work using the field of respiratory medicine as an exemplar. The concept is transferable to other therapeutic areas.