There was a time every household had the services of a General Practitioner – designated with a more informal term, ‘family doctor’. The family doctor was more than a physician. He was a friend, mentor and healer. He took care of every kind of illness. He would spend time with the family sometimes over a cup of tea and reassure them of the concerned patient’s condition and that itself was more than enough for the speedy recovery of the patient. Sometimes the same doctor would serve the entire neighbourhood kind of a bonding in the locality. Neighbours would contact the doctor if someone in the neighbourhood needed urgent attention.
General Practitioners are nowhere to be seen these days. Everyone is getting Specialised in different fields
Specialists were found only for eyes and teeth in the good old days but now we have Specialists for every part of our body. And this approach has made living a nightmare.
Speciality hospitals are mushrooming everywhere. There is one here that has around 50 specialists each taking care of different parts of the body. They are housed in different locations in the same compound. If someone has complications then that patient is sent to every specialist to rule out diseases. The patient is asked to stay in the hospital.
By the time the patient is given a clearance to leave the hospital they are given a big fat bill. Some tests are not required but they are made to go through them.
In the good old days, the General Practitioners were able to take care of a patient and bring them back to health at a much lesser cost.
While an Optician or a Dentist cannot possibly serve as General Practitioners there are others who could render that service. We have our Heart Specialist who we can contact anytime over the phone and he guides us about any simple ailment and prescribes medicines.
Where can a patient go for instance if they have fever. There are no Specialists dealing with fever.
Every specialist has to go through the basics and so are competent to render whatever service that is of a general nature.
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True
Yes @bestwriter we do need general practitioners apart from specialists too.
Very good points.I remember when I was a child,I may be having severe fever and headache and discomfort in general.There was this lady family doctor who treated all of us.The instant I am in her presence,I already felt better.
We have this doctor who I can call up anytime I want over the phone. We had one here who is no more The irritating part about these specialists is they are mostly visiting doctors who have fixed hours.
But some hospitals have again started keeping more General Practitioners(GPs)
Come to think of it back in the days i remember when my mum had us go to the same doctor all of us. then i came to realize that he was indeed our family doctor,and he did that pretty well. He actually treated the whole family and i remember we never went to any other hospital or had any other doctor take care of us.That has really changed over the years, everyone seems to be doing their own thing you come from training and the next thing you know your working in a public hospital, somewhere down the line you hear someone has their own practice and that is where they start mincing money from the public. and that is how family doctors disappeared.
I know about these specialists who work in hospitals also practise privately. It is just one's good fortune that they live in a place where they have access to doctors who love their profession.