FAMILY DOCTOR

Evening Post, Issue 113, 10 November 1930, Page 8

FAMILY DOCTOR

"COMING INTO HIS OWN"

NEW YORK OPINION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YOEK, loth October. That the family doctor is coming into his own again, ttius disturbing the erroneous- impression that the specialist is fast relegating the general practitioner to the realms of oblivion. This opinion, expressed by a- city doctor in the "New York Times," is based on the wider dissemination of medical knowledge and the greater availability of improved , instruments and appliances for the diagnosing and treatment of hu-man-ills. ■ "The bona fide specialist we have long had with us," he says, "as a valued source of technical knowledge and skill, but the number of those coming in this category is relatively small in comparison with the total number of registered physicians engaged the practice of medicine. The exact proportion of such specialists is not readily avaiWe, but'no doubt a liberal estimate would be about 15 per cent._ of the total membership of the profession. The pseudo-specialist, so-called, is quite another matter, to be considered as something outside of the legitimate practice of medicine. "Since the days of Hippocrates it has been the general practitioner who has maintained and fufilled the traditional role of the physician, and it is to him that the public look in their hour iof need. He is not only the family doctor; he is neighbour, counsellor, friend, and, in his own way, confessor, all rolled into one. During the World War it was the general practitioners who were in greatest demand by the Government for medical service, because of their • all-round knowledge and experience. They are essentially the friends of the poor, who, because of their inability to pay the higher fees of the specialists, must depend upon them. They serve as the direct medium for the determination of new ideas between the higher channels of medical practice and the general public. There are no distinctions drawn at the meetings of' the Academy of Medicine, the degree of M.D. being the sole requisite qualification, and when subjects are discussed any one present may participate."