SIR, —I congratulate you, and your readers, on the decision
to have a regular article on 'Medicine Today.' Health has been regarded as an unimportant sideline for too long, and the disastrous results are likely to keep it increasingly in the news. An in- formed public opinion is essential on so important a subject.
May 1 respond to your invitation to political parties to comment on Dr. Wilson's first article?
He draws a true and striking picture of the situa- tion in all too many hospitals. I entirely agree with him that the ultimate solution lies in bringing GPs back into the hospitals. This is highly desirable from the GPs' point of view, too. Much of the bitterness felt by them today is caused by the feel- ing of having been cut off from the hospitals and downgraded into overworked sorters. The report of the Liberal Health Committee, of which I was chairman, drew attention to this in 1963, and recom- mended more GP beds and closer contact betweea the two branches. This was adopted as official Liberal policy in the same year.
The difficulty, as Dr. Wilson surely appreciates, is that in the places like Crumblethorpe, GPs are already thin on the ground and are overworked people with little time to spare. If, however, it be- came official policy to encourage the use of GPs in hospitals, and if senior, and junior, hospital doctors, as well as GPs, got a 'new'deal,' then we might be able to retain a far higher proportion of doctors trained in this country. The decision must be made quickly if we are to avoid a catastrophic breakdown in a few years' time.
GAENOR HEATHCOAT AMORY
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