General Medicine
Public Service
What is General Medicine?
General Medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of diseases affecting the internal organs of the body in adults.
Specialists in this field are called specialist general physicians. They are doctors who have trained in various specialties such as diseases of the heart, lungs, brain and other organs. Often people have more than one part of the body involved in an illness or the exact cause of symptoms is not clear. The General Physician is an expert in diagnosing what is wrong and managing illnesses that are complex.
General Medicine at Auckland City Hospital sees more than 15,000 patients every year.
The General Medical Team
This consists of the consultant (the specialist general physician), the registrar (a doctor who is training to be a specialist) and a house officer (a doctor in training who is more junior than the registrar but is a qualified doctor). Sometimes, as part of the team, there are trainee interns who are medical students who have yet to pass their final exam but are gaining practical experience. More junior medical students may also accompany this team. There are senior doctors (Medical Officers Special Scale) who assess general medical patients in the Emergency Department and the Clinical Decision Unit.
The outpatient service is provided by our consultants and registrars within our outpatient clinics on Level 6 of the Support Building.
Click here for directions to the outpatient clinics. The doctor will examine you and ask questions about your symptoms, previous illnesses, medications, and your situation, to get helpful information to diagnose what is causing the illness. The doctor will refer you to other specialists and for tests or treatments as needed.
The inpatient service is provided by our five wards – Ward 63, 65, 66, 67 and 68 located on Level 6 of Auckland City Hospital. Each ward has a charge nurse who is responsible for the patient care in the ward.
Inpatient service is provided to patients who:
- require treatment that cannot be undertaken at home (this may include medication given into a vein, "IV drip")
- need investigations that are best carried out while staying in hospital
- are too unwell to manage at home.
The information on this page has been provided by healthpoint.co.nz, helping people better understand and use New Zealand health services.
