‘Practical’ medicine urged on doctors

Press, 14 March 1978, Page 26

‘Practical’ medicine urged on doctors

Greymouth reporter

The system in New Zealand where a patient can immediately change his general practitioner is ideal, says the new president of the New Zealand Medical Association (D. K. E. Kibblewhite)in Greymouth. “It works well here in Greymouth, where we have sufficient general practitioners” (Dr Kibblewhite practices in Greymouth) —- “but we must ask ourselves whether it works, in practical terms throughout the whole country,” he told the association’s annual conference at Greymouth.

“If, as we are told, it is difficult to obtain the services of a general practitioner in same areas, then this must surely make it a great deal more difficult for the patient who wants to make a change when a conflict of personalities occurs. . "There will always be incompatibilities between certain patients and certain doctors. Personally, I feel that I have failed if I cannot alter my manner to suit the individual patient, but accept that this requires a degree of judgment which will inevitably fail at times.”

Dr Kibblewhite said it was said that the days had gone of small and settled population groups — “Days in whicht he horse-and-buggy doctor knew, and was known by, all his patients.” Increased mobility, the draft towards the cities, the smaller family unit, and swift-changing lifestyles had removed from many patients not only the friendly relationship with a general practitioner but, perhaps more importantly, the support of the community. “Often there is no older relative to pass on the wisdom of experience; sometimes there is not even a sense of heighbourhood.

“As a community — but, even more, as a profession — we must recognise these changes, and do our best to adapt to new needs and new priorities.” For example, he said, New Zealand was proud of its Plunket Society and for quite some time had been ahead of the world in infant care.

“Now, we are going rather badly in the death the age of one month and one year. Our country’s death rate is twice as high as Sweden, Finland, Den-

mark, the Netherlands, and Norway. “Up to one month of age, while the child may still be under hospital care or supervision, our mority rate is about the same as the other countries mentioned.

“Something seems to go wrong in this period of one month to one year in New Zealand, and the tragic result is that in 1974 we had one child in this age-group dying for each dav of the year.

It must be acknowledged that some, though by no means all, of these deaths could have been prevented by very simple measures, he said. “So much is said and written todav about preventive medicine. It has become a catch-cry for politician and populist, because we all sense instinctively that the solution to some of our medical problems need no longer come from the research laboratory, but from the practical application of much we already know.”

Discussing an example, Dr Kibblewhite went on to emphasise the need for a simple means of home-tes-ting the all-important balance of infant food formulas (“The Press,” March 9)