Do We Still Need Doctors?

is the question that literal. we require someone to do a similar job of a doctor, but do we need a group as powerful, dominating, self protecting and expensive as doctors? It sounds in interesting debate. come on Renal don't dissapoint.

I don't reall think that we need GP's becuase all they really do is send you to a specialist or give out basic medicines

However I think a strong case could be made for getting rid of GPs (or at least removing licensing requirements). In my experience GPs do little other than operate a database and then either make referals or write prescriptions. A call centre employee or even a computer could do this instead.

As it's presented, I don't think that motion is at all defensible. In fact it's just plain bizarre.

However I think a strong case could be made for getting rid of GPs (or at least removing licensing requirements). In my experience GPs do little other than operate a database and then either make referals or write prescriptions. A call centre employee or even a computer could do this instead.

On a fundamental level, writing prescriptions requires pharmacological and physiological knowledge. I don't want to come across as a prick but so much GP bashing happens on TSR and it gets really, really irritating.

I'm intrigued, that a man of your intelligence can make this statement, you usually talk sense. Enligten me, whats the thougt process behind this?

no, I did not mention nurses. but as in previous arguments, a lot of medical students are under the impression that knowledge is only useful in the hands of a doctor.

take cannulation for example. It was not long ago that only a doctor could cannulate and it was unheard of for anybody else to do it. then came a change of thinking, and now everyman and his dog can go on a half day course and cannulate anyone they want. this clearly demonstrates that mant of the tasks of a doctor can be eroded down to their basic elements and a monkey can be trained to do it.
not even prescriptions are the realm of medical staff anymore, something I as a nurse, don't neccesarily agree totally with, but that is a seperate debate.
as many of the students on this forum agree, the concepts and tasks are not usually very difficult to deal with in medicine, it is simply the number of things one must learn.

So in my mind, this debate becomes as much a question of needing doctors as cost. what exactly is it that a doctor does that could not be done as well and cheaper than is currently provided. it is helpful to have a very experienced person sat at the top of the hierarchy in a given discipline, but does this need to be a doctor when ultimately it relies on experience? take rheumatology for example, now the medics have controlled arthritis very well in recent years, so it seems to make more sense to have the most senior staff as physios, O.Ts and (of course) nurses as they are far more involved with the patients care needs. but it isnt, its a consultant doctor costing approx 4 times more than any of the above. and doing less work.I am sure you will be able to think of circumstances where you would need medical knowledge without any difficulty but i am sure you are getting the point.

take where i work. A & E, I can see a person with common cold. i know it is cold, i know they will be sent home, i know what the treatment will be, i know there is nothing really sinister going on... but they have to wait a couple of hours for a free doctor to see them, when common sense tells me i could have sent them home two hours ago. however a major trauma call coming in requires, amongst other things, a lot of medical expertise.

take rheumatology for example, now the medics have controlled arthritis very well in recent years, so it seems to make more sense to have the most senior staff as physios, O.Ts and (of course) nurses as they are far more involved with the patients care needs. but it isnt, its a consultant doctor costing approx 4 times more than any of the above. and doing less work.I am sure you will be able to think of circumstances where you would need medical knowledge without any difficulty but i am sure you are getting the point.

It requires you to read and understand the database entry, anyway. In fact, every time I've been to a GP's office in the past few years this has been exactly what they did. Even when one of these visits was fairly serious, all the chap did was read that he needed to take a blood test, got a nurse to do it then sent it in the post to a specialist. I'm sure the nurse would have been just as able to read the database as well - and she was likely being paid 1/4 as much or less. Given that staff costs are the principal reason healthcare is so expensive, this is no small amount of waste.


Well if you follow my posts as you imply it shouldnt really surprise you that I oppose licensing, given that I'm a fairly extremist libertarian. In the absense of licensing requirements, people would tend to choose who they employ on the basis of what level of competence they believe necessary and are willing to pay for. THis will usually vary from person to person.

Well if you follow my posts as you imply it shouldnt really surprise you that I oppose licensing, given that I'm a fairly extremist libertarian. In the absense of licensing requirements, people would tend to choose who they employ on the basis of what level of competence they believe necessary and are willing to pay for. THis will usually vary from person to person.

Then pray tell why are medics given pharmacology lectures? Why not just pull it out of thin air?

Good question, at least with regard to GPs.


I would abolish prescriptions entirely. I don't think that is actually a particularly extreme position, given you can already buy dettol, lighter fluid, high test peroxide etc. without requiring a closed shop employee on £100,000/year to write you a license.

I presume you consider that you're competent to assess and choose the level of competence when you clearly understand very little of what you'd be choosing your GP on. Roll on...

Do you not see how that would be utterly reckless?

Even if I was incompetent to make such a choice, and there was no external information available to me (which seems unlikely to me, given people put great effort into publishing reviews and recommendations of far more trivial products and services), it still does not give other people a right to make the decision on my behalf without my permission.

But then why go to a doctor?