u/whitebridgemax

I’ve been thinking a lot about neurosurgery lately. It can be hard to get in to see a neurosurgeon. And they’re expensive. And let’s be honest - it’s not that complicated - dude comes in with burning pain down leg - decision tree says do surgery - blah blah blah decompress the nerve.

As an expert in primary care I see a lot of patients who see neurosurgeons. I went to university and I studied anatomy. I also know how to cut off simple moles. I feel like I’ve seen enough over the years to know who needs surgery. I also figure the operation isn’t that much different - maybe just take that “mole on the back cut” and go a little deeper. To be honest it wouldn’t be that hard to do it in my treatment room.

So as a GP I’ve gone back to my GP colleagues and my college of GPs and we have determined that we have the skills to do laminectomies. We (as a group who have never done this procedure before) have determined it’s not that hard. And we are ready to step up and help those poor neurosurgeons by doing direct to consumer GP top of scope laminectomies.

Honestly it will take so much pressure off the neurosurgeons. They should be grateful to get to focus on instrumented spine and the more complex pain patients that exist in the community. I’m surprised they’re not saying thank you. Typical arrogant specialists - protectionist garbage if you ask me.

No I don’t need to ask them what the pitfalls are - I already know. I’ve self determined. I’ve also written my own education program for me and my GP mates to do. We will do 15 hours of online learning and then we are good to go.

The state government is thrilled - previously they had to actually pay for hospitals and surgeons - we are a ready and willing workforce! And it’s great that patients can walk into their local GP and get laminectomies done in a timely fashion.

Protectionist surgeons have had it good for too long. This is a consumer focused initiative. I’ve actually also commissioned a University to study how great my initiative is. I’m not going to publish the paper but I will continue to reference that this is associated with the university and that makes it ok.

No really - you’re welcome