It is surprising the number of people who do not have a regular doctor they consult for their medical needs, and many of these live in a country town where obtaining an appointmewnt with a GP involves a very long wait.
Usually, the appearance of annoying symptoms alerts them to the presence of a medical problem and they present at a regional hospital where it is suggested that having a blood test will determine the cause. A blood sample is taken and sent to pathology and in due course the analysis report delivers the bad news.
The patrient is suffering from one of the common ailments that appear as we age and the patient is connected to a doctor in a city hospital far away by tele-conference,. It is suggested that a treatment course would be helpful and that is prescribed as the recommended treatment.
In the majority of cases this delivers relief and as the prescription needs renewal this happens automatically, signed off by that distant prescribing doctor. The doctor and patient never physically meet together and treatment consists entirely on the result of that blood test.
This is fast developing into the way country medicine is being practised,. The economics of having a registered doctor stationed at remote country hospitals has been replaced by the tele-conference, aided by the prescribing doctor making visits to actually see the patient at long intervals.
That usually quickly reverts to an overload situation. The patients treated by tele-conference grows in number and only a select few can be fitted into face to face consultation during a visit to a local hospital.Treatment standards remain unchanged as improvements come online because each case does not come under regular review.
This comes in contrast to the practice of medicione in cities where the doctor and patient meet in consultation whenever a prescription needs renewal. That provides an oppoertunity to discuss new medication and how that may deliver improvements to the treatmentt being offered.
Often, it is the patient who resists review by the visiting doctor. Getting to the hospital for a timed visit would involve driving they didnt want to undertake and they were satisfiesd that the medication prescribed was offering relief. In many cases they were suffering from a range of differing conditions, not all of which were being treated.
It would be desireable to bring country medicine as near as possible to city standards. That would be attained by making prescription renewal conditional on each third renewal being required during a face to face consultation.
Too many treatment regimes are solely ordered as the outcome of a blood test !
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