General Medical Practice

it here. This doctor is one of four in partnership, with his own panel of 2,000 patients and about the same number of private patients. He has a surgery built for the purpose in the garden of his house, with a waiting room to seat 30 and a consulting room and a dispensary. His wife, a trained nurse, acts as nurse receptionist, does dressings, assists in dispensing, keeps the appointment book, gives some injections and helps in many ways. All the work of the practice is carefully recorded, and this review is based on the records of one year with 289 working days and, in all, 708 1 surgeries.' Fourteen thousand and five-hundred patients visited the surgery, and nearly 4,000 patients were visited in their homes. Eleven thousand prescriptions aiid 9,000 certificates were given, Nov., 1945] EDITORIALS 571 About 3,000 medicines were dispensed. The daily average number of patients for 310 days ^as 60. The following table gives the work done in addition to ordinary clinical examination :? Anaesthetics Antenatal examinations Aspiration (bursa) ? _ (ganglion) Coagulation time Dilatation of prepuce Dressings Ears syringed Foreign bodies removed from eye Full blood counts Haemoglobin estimations Injections Microscopical examinations Minor operations Number of births Paracenteses Patch tests (for tuberculosis) .. Pathological specimens sent .. Pessaries fitted (watch spring) Kepair of perineum (midwife's , calls) Sedimentation rate estimations Skin tests Sutures inserted .. /o Sutures removed Transfusions Urine analyses Vaccinations *