Dear Doctor, its immensely apparent that you don't talk to patients, who are constantly amazed at the incompetent arrogance of present day medical practitioner's. Its the whole medical profession thats in denial and “struggling to engage with a changing world.”

You may have good imaging devices, but your still in the guess then test with pharmaceuticals era and have neglected causative and preventive medicine. Why do you think alternative medicine is so popular, because it offers a plausible and natural approach, that improves life. Rather than a chemical symptomatic guess, that ends up with you on the operating table. Resulting in quality of life rapidly diminishing

The amount of misdiagnosis, death and injury from reactions to pharmaceuticals, malpractice, wrong medication and failed surgical procedures, show how inadequate your highly over payed profession is. Your just like politicians, think your god, but deliver the devil instead.

Basically all you do, is provide drugs to cover up the effects of the drugs in food products that cause health problems. Other than that, you cut it out or use the short term approach, of maintaining the situation with more drugs. If that doesn't work, you implement palliative slow death. You never find nor remove the cause, let alone understand the basics of good health

Mind you in traumatic medicine, there are wonderful results.

Alternative medicine is so popular becuase there is one born every minute. Next time you get your leg cut off rub some homopathic water on it see if it clears up.

As for the actual piece I was taken aback when I read the refered to piece in the paper if you didn't pick option 4 you need your head read.

Having seen far too many Doctors. I would much rather see one who pauses, get out his reference book and checks for other causes or one who has read the latest in the speciality publication.

I do not want to see an old fogey who has learnt nothing since setting up practice a decade ago, you know the one who gives you a script for everything.

I also do not want to see a young wippersnapper who knows it all 'cause he learnt it at medical school, you know the one who gives you a script for everything.

As patients we need to diagnose our Doctors as much as they diagnose illness.

Death by conventional wisdom happens too often.

Kenny your right, theirs one born every minute. Thats why we have an epidemic of diabetes, prostrate cancer, heart disease, coronary disease, joint degradation, breast cancer, obesity, viral infection reactions to antibiotics and the list goes on. Its easy to see you lack knowledge of the subject, by ignoring my statement in regard to traumatic medicine. Spend a day or two a week visiting those in hospital in despair at their treatment and future outcome, or talking to those dying because the medical profession has but one approach, chemical suppression of symptoms and or surgical removal of the ailing organ, followed by pharmaceutical pain suppression, no cure.

Its also easy to see how much interest people put in their health, by the lack of posts to articles that deal with health. As they say Kenny, ignorance is bliss. You don't see the train coming until it flattens you, your certainly right, theirs one born every minute.

Excellent post Steve, we may disagree on approach and methodology, but we both see the problems most refuse to acknowledge or even accept exist.

If I had a terminal illness, I'd rather have a walking medical encyclopaedia who has had a lot of experience is his/her field than someone who can "engage" with me and "empathise" with my situation.

Yes, doctors need to show compassion, but I think their medical expertise is much more important.

I have a friend who got a 99 on her UAI but was not admitted into any medical school because of her UMAT score. For those unaware, the UMAT is supposed to test your logical, empathetic and non-verbal reasoning skills. Unfortunately, the second section is very subjective and those smart enough to get into the course are often barred entry because of it. Ridiculous.

Kerri was pointing out an important change that has occurred in medical education. One that involves new ways of teaching to improve on the older models (such as the one I went through) which asks students to trudge through 3 years of basic sciences, then 3 years of clinical medicine. Many older doctors worry that the lessening of a strict anatomy, biochemistry, pathology, physiology, pharmacology preclinical education would make new doctors less able. Senior eye surgeons complain that they have to teach the basic sciences to new Registrars (doctors who have finished their medical degree and have choosen to undertake their specialty training in opthalmology). Senior surgeons complain of the same thing.

Not surprised that it descends into a talk of alternative medicine and the failings of the modern doctor. Modern medicine is open to many levels of scrutiny and external review - the law firms have entered into the fray, health services commissioners, medical practitioners boards and, of course, the media. We see that the doctor is not the all knowing Dr Kildare and, perhaps, never was. But we still wish our doctors to be just that. On TV, there are doctors on ER, the god-doctor such as Dr John Campion on 'All Saints', House, albeit with personal flaws. But after a while in the job you realise no Emergency department or emergency doctor is that competent or that efficient, the God-superdoctor just does not exist.

We want the shaman or the mystic and for a period in history the doctor offered that but get used to it - your doctor is working from the best scientific knowledge he or she can gain, is making a decision that will always have uncertainty in its outcomes and is using very good but imperfect tools.

Education is what Kerri was talking about. Education is the issue. So much of a shame that the President of ANZCA thought that GPs lacked. He should come and do my job for a day.