Changes in medicine

Press, 12 February 1981, Page 4

Changes in medicine

People needing treatment would have more say in general. medical practice over the next 20 years, said Dr G. B. W. Tait, senior lecturer in medicine at the Christchurch Clinical School, yesterday. By the year 2000 general practice would not be a “doctors’ world,” he told the conference of the Institute of Health Inspectors and the Royal Society of Health. He based his predictions on the state of clinical practice over the next 20 years on interviews he had had with the deans of the four New Zealand clinical schools, and final-year medical students at the Christchurch Clinical School. “There is no doubt that the consumer, or client, will have a much greater say in medical practice and this will be greatly influenced by i the advances in medical technology which are already being felt,” he said, i Pain relief by using synthetic endorphins which had the same benefits as morphine, but without the socially bad effects, could revolutionise medical treatment. The availability of medical information to even the’ most isolated doctors through computer systems would also make information for diagnosis and treatment a “cheap” method for all, Dr Tait said. Hospitals would become temples of “high ‘ technology,” with general practice developing to give treatment that would cover such areas as. acupuncture and physiotherapy. “The general practitioner will become more in tune: with treating the ‘whole’ per- j son and in doing so Would! have a greater say in health,” Dr Tait said.

The impact of new medical technology had not been taken into account in planning. “Within 20 years many diseases we are now coping with will not be there. Take for example the fact that smallpox has been eradicated and tuberculosis has

- almost been eradicated. We . can also forsee the end of rheumatoid arthritis,” he said. ■ Doctors would take more personal responsibility for : patients and would begin to take on work that was now ■ the preserve of some paramedical people.