Læknablaðið - 01.08.1966, Page 80

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LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
Australia and New Zealand: On the 5th continent and in New
Zealand we have similiar conditions for the G. P. as in Canada and
U.S.A. The G. P. is the man of the open country whilst the Specialist
dominates the cities to a great extent.
Africa: In South Africa we find similiar conditions for the G. P. as
in Canada, U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand. In other African coun-
tries we have similiar conditions as in Asia.
In the highly industrialised countries like U.S.A., Canada, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, South Africa and Northern Europe, we see at
present the G. P. struggling for his former rights in the hospitals. The
G. P. has been partly excluded from the hospitals by the large numbers
of new specialists who came into the hospitals after World War II, but
he is putting up a fierce fight in all these countries for his former rights.
TRENDS OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
The medical history of the past 20 years shows that the G. P. is
unreplaceable by a team of specialists. Unconsiciously to himself, to his
colleagues and the public, the G. P. had his own branch of medicine
all the time. He is the man who gives comprehensive medical care,
who deals with all the many smaller ailments of body, soul and en-
vironment and he is the man who in the era of specialist medicine is
the natural guide for his patients in the labyrinth of modern specialties.
There is no doubt that to-day for all of us the G. P. is an impor-
tant member in the medical corps. Where the G. P. dies out the whole
system of medical care goes into disorder. Thus, the public, the special-
ists and the authorities now are convinced that the G. P. must be pre-
served, possibly with reforms.
The reforms are certainly necessary on many points. The G. P.s
themselves are convinced of the necessity of early reforms which might
change many of the characteristic features of the G. P. of the past. In
many countries idealistic G. P.s have founded organizations which ana-
lyse the position and situation, the status and opportunities of the mod-
ern G. P. On the basis of this analysis they try to project a new image
of the G. P.of the future. It is upon the authorities, the specialists, the
universities and the medical organizations to deal with these facts and
to help the G. P.s to create their own world with equal rights, equal
duties and equal opportunities for the G. P.s and the specialists.
One of the most striking facts is that the G. P. has become aware
of his inferior status, but is irreplaceable in the medical society and, as
everywhere in our modern age, he wants equal rights and equal op-
portunities. In our days we are witnesses to a struggle for equal rights
and equal opportunities for different groups of people all over the
world. It is a characteristic feature of our times that it is no more pos-
sible to isolate small groups of mankind from the common rights and
common opportunities of all men in our times. So, it is undemocratic to