11 OCTOBER 2024
The country ’ s leading independent medical publication
SPECIAL 40 TH BIRTHDAY EDITION
Back to the future …
YOU want to know what it was like as a GP in the year Australian Doctor was first published ? As someone who was there , I ’ ll take you back . It ’ s 1984 and life is good but busy . In my house , the clock is striking 6am ( not 13 ) and predictably the bedside phone rings with Mrs K Dr Jon Fogarty asking me to call in on the way to the surgery . GP on the NSW She has another migraine . Could I give her Central Coast . “ a needle ”? It ’ s the only thing that works , she says .
I ’ ll pop round . I feel sorry for the poor woman , but I ’ m becoming slightly concerned that her requests for these pethidine injections are getting a bit more frequent .
The last time I was there , I noticed a bottle of physeptone prescribed by a different GP , my colleague on the other side of town .
I ’ m starting to wonder . Maybe I ’ m not the only GP being called upon to prescribe narcotics for this lady ?
Dressed and showered now , with the kids wandering around , my first cigarette of the day has been consumed .
I know I ’ ve got to stop these smokes , even the kids are on at me , but I ’ m distracted by Bob Hawke on the radio , extolling the virtues of the new Medicare system . It ’ s free medical care for everybody , he reckons . It seems a good idea to me , but local surgeons are up in arms , talking about communism and threatening to strike .
The papers are also full of this bloke Dr Geoffrey Edelsten , who seems to me to be a weirdo . Driving around Sydney in a pink Lamborghini with a number plate of SPUNKY or SEXY or something .
He ’ s been opening up GP practices with a grand piano and a chandelier in the waiting room .
Does anyone think they will get rich with this corporate medicine rubbish ?
But maybe we should upgrade the waiting room , replace those Reader ’ s Digests with something contemporary , say Women ’ s Weekly .
The visit to Mrs K is short . I give her the pethidine / Maxolon cure-all . She seems pretty anxious . Three kids at home , husband ’ s a grump , PAGE 10