The General Practitioner in Eclipse

As you will see from the notice convening this meeting, I have selected as a title for my remarks: "The General Practitioner in Eclipse." Eclipse has been defined "as an obscuration of one of the heavenly bodies by the interposition of another." This is Hrot the sense in which I desire to use the word eclipse, but rather in the sense of "being placed in ignominious obscurity." Much prominence has been given of late to the invidious position that the general practitioner finds himself today , in the new scheme of things, in contradistinction to the place of honour and dignity occupied by him in the past and the respect in which he was held by the community at large prior to the inception of the New Health Act. The causes which have led to this position are numerous, some important, some not so important, and you will readily appreciate that only a few cain be selected for review in the short time at my disposal tonight , and that those selected by me are not to be considered as comprehensive or the all important ones, but rather are they intended to focus your attention on an already established fact and to stimulate your interest in the devaluation of the general practitioner, its causes, and its effect on Medicine as a profession, and on the community as a whole. I am bearing in mind that a Chairman's subject matter on this occasion should not be too dogmatic or controversial since there will be no discussion on the remarks that I am about to make. Almost every medical man has the knowledge that a Medical Revolution is taking place. The "Hungry Forties" of the past and present century have gone. Like the building of poor-houses in the last century to house the desolate and starving, many of us see an analogous conception in the present century to house those of us who, through no fault of our own, are compelled by economic and other reasons to be incarcerated body and soul, in the bureaucratic edifice that surrounds our profession today. Gone are the days when we practised for conscience sake, and I regret to say many of us have succumbed to the temptation to practice "for dear sake." Gone are the days when the level of one's fee was directly proportional to the height of the patient's manure heap. Gone are …