Extended care

Doctoring differently

Have you seen lots of doctors and had lots of tests and no cause has been found for your ongoing symptoms?

Do you need

  • a doctor with an interest in complex problems

  • an extended consultation time - up to one hour to discuss what is happening for you in relation to your health

  • trauma-informed care

  • a second opinion

  • a doctor who is curious about aspects of your story that may not have been explored before

Dr Bronwyn Campbell is a New Zealand trained Specialist General Practitioner (GP) offering online appointments - see “About” for more information

GPs have a really difficult job - they are tasked with assessing, investigating and managing the vast array of diverse symptoms that patients experience in just a very short window of time. Our training teaches us to match symptoms with diseases and we learn a variety of skills to achieve this: asking specific questions, conducting physical examinations and investigating with a variety of tests. The management of many conditions is informed by education and research that is analysed by experts. When all of this works, the patient is relieved of their symptoms and health is restored.

Sometimes this approach doesn’t work which is frustrating for both the person and their doctor.

What happens when the test results are normal and the doctors can only say that the serious diagnoses (such as cancer or a heart attack) have been ruled out yet your symptoms remain? Or there are no answers to the way that you are feeling and all results are “normal”.

GPs manage this situation every day but sometimes the curiosity wanes once they are confident there is no “serious” problem.

I have a particular interest in whole person care and am curious about whether there are aspects of a persons illness that perhaps do not fit the Western medical model of care - are there things going on that have not been thought to be relevant?

The care I provide does not replace or compete with your GP - it works alongside or is supplementary to General Practice and provides the opportunity for you and I to explore indepth, what is happening for you. Information can be shared with your GP at your request.