Where ignorance is bliss.

         The University of Manitoba recently had its commencements lecture to medical graduates presented by a journalist who specializes in health care.  His name is Andre Picard.   Picard is unfortunately a sanctimonious hack with little understanding of the health care system despite the thirty years he proudly informs us of reporting in that area.  He bemoans the poor communication between physicians and patients and presumes in the course of a brief presentation to teach these young graduates the right way to practice the art of medicine.   I have spent forty years teaching family medicine residents the art of medicine as well as the science.  I taught them the 'conversation' between physician and patient is vital, that house calls are an important tool, that there are limitations to investigation and treatment before the patient is harmed rather than helped.   Some learn quickly but time constraints are serious and limiting when it comes to applying what they have learnt.  The fee schedule doesn't help either.  The reward for freezing a plantar was more than for a half hour consultation for depression.  Picard doesn't understand that the unfortunate direction of medical care is the result of political decision making and the administridiots who serve them.  He has bought in to the theory that well paid administrators  perpetuate to protect their jobs, that they are the 'experts' in health care and how it should be delivered.   They only understand the 'Health Care Industry,' which has to do  with votes and finances.  Physicians have been manipulated, directed, bribed, threatened and penalized to make health care into what the politicians and their satraps want it to be and the experience and expertise of lifetime practitioners is cast aside. Unfortunately, it is the public who will pay the price for these ill-conceived notions.
        Many of the finest and most dedicated hardworking physicians I know have become so disillusioned with the direction in which medical practice is moving that they look forward to early retirement.
        Finally, our paymasters decided the value of house-calls, an important aspect of medical care, and a great convenience to the genuinely sick and elderly, when they decided they were worth about half the cost of a plumber's visit.