what ever happened to the family doctor?

What ever Happened to the Family Doctor?

 

It is a known fact.  Specialists specialize.  Another great Truth for sociologists to ponder. 

While there can be no argument that medical science has advanced to a place where it is impossible for any one person to know all that there is to know about the human body, it is tragic what has become of the general practitioner . 

Once called the Family Doctor, this generalist was exactly that, the doctor who treated our entire family, from great grandma down to delivering the newest member of our clan.  While there was much he did not know about medical science, he knew far more about our well-being than all today's specialists. because he treated the whole person. 

What remains of this town fixture is now called our Primary Care Giver.  This harried person is no longer caring for our whole being, or our whole family.  The role of the Practitioner is to process patients, acting as a traffic officer, directing us this way and that to the specialists that the Practitioner believes we need to deal with our complaint.  Since the HMO's are interested in the bottom line, these frazzled doctors have no time to know us or anything about our lives.  Like pieces of paper or perhaps like so many sheep, we are prodded, poked, stamped and delivered, after paying all co-payments, to the proper Healer. 

So enters the older person with blurred vision.  "Ah Haw!" cries the practitioner.  "Vision blurred.  Optometrist or Ophthalmologist is where you want to go".  And off you go with your paper work and your medical card.  "Macular Degeneration" cries the eye physician, after you have filled out a book of questions and sat in a cold room for hours.  "Happens to lots of folks your age", he goes on.  "Dry Macular.  No cure.  Come back in one month".  His hand is on the door knob and he is leaving the room as he asks, "Any questions?"  You blubber, "What does this mean?" 

"Don't worry," he says as his voice trails off down the hall to his next appointment, "you'll never go completely blind." 

Cold?  Uncaring?  Not necessarily.  Just another overworked specialist trying to meet his quota for the month. 

But hey!  We must like this sort of modern medicine because we fight against any sort of change. 

Personally, I miss the old, kindly family doctor who knew far more about what makes me tick than whether my eyes are blurring or not.  And he had the time to treat the whole me. 

 

Carl Jarvis

Curious Carl