Dear All,

     The following is a brief presentation of an opinion, contains a couple of
     what I believe to be fairly safe assumptions, plus I've inserted quite a
     few '*'s as I don't want to offend or be seen as shouting...  8->

     We were informed, in what I certainly agree was an interesting read, of the
     generous accountant who insisted on his pod' increasing the fee for a
     service. The accountant's lesion read to me as being dorsal. I'm truly glad
     he (the accountant) was made more comfortable. But for far less than $70-00
     he could have bought himself a packet of headache tablets which would have
     provided the same result - *temporary* relief.

     I truly hope that he also listens to his podiatrist's advice and invests
     his next $70-00 in an appropriately fitted shoe to **fix** his problem.
     Otherwise, as we know, he is looking at lots more $$$ spent, lots more pain
     and a condition that will deteriorate to eventual ulceration (no matter how
     many times any HK is reduced or is *not* reduced).

     (This treatment would also of course *fix* the interdigital corn that was
     plaguing one of the patients mentioned recently on this mailbase.)

     Cameron wrote "... I have long believed many podiatrists are in the wrong
     business and should cater more for the beauty therapy market..." I agree.
     And that would be the place for our accountant friend *if* he doesn't
     follow his podiatrist's footwear advice. And furthermore, would be the
     place for many of those patients who ignore our advice and thereby clog up
     podiatry services, denying many needy people the opportunity to be treated.

     Ben wrote "... (in our case making people feel better- not necessarily
     resolving their problem) and our service (podiatry)..." This is a common
     theme in our profession. But I would strongly side with those who take a
     differing view. To me one of the beauties of podiatry is that most
     conditions which present to us can either be fixed, or at least made a
     hellevalot (sp??) better. Ie, as above, by treating the *cause* of the
     problem (more *'s inserted 8-> ), rather than just maintaining the problem
     by palliating the symptom/s.

     Put another way, podiatry needs to focus on treating causes (as per many of
     the highly intellectual topics routinely raised/discussed on this mailbase)
     to ...
     make people better and thus create independence rather than dependence,
     create places for new people to be seen (especially important in the public
     sector, where I mainly practise, and where too often waiting lists are
     immorally long) and help elevate the standing of our profession to a higher
     level where it deserves to be. (Oh yes, and then we can certainly say that
     high fees are justified, even if not necessarily afforded by all - which I
     think was an excellent point made by Sally.)

     Anyway, that's what I reckon.

     - Respectfully, John (Woulfe).









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