eneral Practice
R.71 wonder if John Rowan Wilson realises that, behind his question 'Is general practice outmoded?' there lies a long, sad, sorry story. That the GP would be outmoded has, until ecently, been a widely-held belief in the Ministry f Health, and as a result general practice has been llowed to run down. After all, when money for he NHS was so desperately short, why spend it on branch of the service which is shortly to become obsolete? But as the dust started to settle on the medical scientific explosion, it became alarmingly clear that a modern medical service needs vast numbers of GPs to man the first line, passing back extra-difficult cases to highly trained specialists in the second line. It is true that these GPs are now called 'doctors of first contact' or 'generalists.' but they are. in fact, simply GPs with more money, equipment and time. 1 .wonder if the country realises the full consequences of this disastrous error? At the moment when the great wave of demand for modern diagnosis and treatment is reaching its peak. the GP service is in ribbons and the whole weight is falling on the 6,000 consultants.
Their life and workload is becoming intolerable, and they are demanding that general practice be put on its feet, but this may take a very long time.
Let us hope that the decisions of the Review Body will start a recovery, but for the nation's medical services the hour is very very late.
C. G. ELLIOTT
Rosemount. East Hoathly, Nr. Lewes, Sussex
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