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Thoughts of the weekend: My wife's grandfather was a GP at the turn of the century. He was always called "The Doctor". Even his wife called him that. he went round his patch in Sussex in a pony and trap with his Gladstone beside him and the Panama atop his head. He had a "list" of about 500-1000 patients. The other day I went to Jersey. The ratio of doctors:people is 1:1000. No computers, no business plans, no annual reports, no targets, no bands (pop or otherwise) and very few power suits. Nice, nice, very nice (said Bokonon). What complicated webs we spin around ourselves these days! I bet "The Doctor" referred to above "knew" exactly what his flock suffered from. I bet he didn't "need" classifications, dictionaries, statistical aggregates (always thought that aggregates were stuff that went into making roads!). There was no penicillin and anything ending with a "zole" was perhaps a nasty boil. I bet "The Doctor" delivered good medicine. I bet his flock respected and admired him. I bet he charged the rich and subsidised the poor. I bet he followed what one of my old and wise professors said to me one day when I was too eager: "your patients aabove all want three things from you; that they are the most important person at the moment of consultation, that you will do your best for them personally and that you can put a comforting hand on them and wipe a sad tear". What use, I ask you, the factory that produced the best horse whips in the world then when every trap was going internal combustion. We called that progress. I dream....I wish... Give me back my 1000 souls and I swear I'll never .......??!! Ahmad _________________________________________ Ahmad Risk MB BCh tel: +44 1737 240022 fax: +44 1737 244660 http://www.cybermedic.org/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%