MEDICAL PROFESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23351, 17 November 1937, Page 11

MEDICAL PROFESSION

REVOLUTION PREDICTED THE AGE OF SPECIALISTS NEW YORK, Nov. 16. (Received Nov. 16, at 11 p.m.) The novelist Dr A. J. Cronin, in a sensational interview a few hours after landing from the liner Queen Mary, predicted a revolution in the medical profession, in which the general practitioner would be wiped out throughout the world. "I believe in the general practitioner's priest-like influence and devotion, but he will be superseded by specialists. It is time he was relegated to where he belongs. He is jack of all trades and master of none, whereas to-day the obstetrician, the lung expert and the surgeon can have and eventually will have adjoining offices. Then wageearners, particularly middle-class and professional people, will form groups and pay medical assurance in proportion to their earnings. I intend to fight for the grouping of specialists when I return to England." Dr Cronin indicated that he had no regrets for attacking charlatan specialists in his novel "The Citadel." He told interviewers: " I wrote the novel in order to show the shocking injustice to humanity in this age of mendacity, but after all a certain type of woman demands pampering, which is responsible for medical racketeers performing needless operations." He added, however, that the profession is the finest - and noblest in the world. There were only 10 per cent, of charlatans. He hoped his three sons would all become doctors. Dr Cronin is on his way to Hollywood to assist in the production of a film version of " The Citadel."