Rapid Responses to:
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Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
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We need a radical change in our philosophy as doctors
- Chandrashekar Gangaraju (25 November 2005)
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Martin Alder's email address - correction
- Graham Easton (29 November 2005)
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Editor's choice - One medicine?
- Dr JK Anand, Mr JW Myles, Retired Orthopaedic Surgeon (3 December 2005)
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"Owners look like their dogs"
- Janet Menage (3 December 2005)
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Chandrashekar Gangaraju, Senior House Officer Calderstones NHS Trust, Mitton Road, Whalley, Clitheroe, Lancs BB7 9PE
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I am a trainee psychiatrist with a medical degree in India. During my intership I had a wonderful opportunity to work in a Community Clinic for tribal people in a remote place. I worked with 2 doctors from whom I have learnt the most liberating of concepts. It was a place with a school for the tribal children and there were some cows which provided milk for all in that place. There was supposed to be a veterinarian, but he had left and there was no replacement. A couple of the cows had some ulcers in the foot and other places. We (One doctor who was a surgeon and myself) decided to help and even though we were not vets, read a little bit and tried to clean the wound and give some antibiotics- a fantastic experience. I learnt to be open and do what we can, and I wondered for along time - 'why dont we do such things routinely?'.One of the doctors would treat people with homeopathic medicine even though he was an allopathic doctor, for minor conditions, utilizing the placebo potential and knew when to change to a stronger much needed allopathic medicine. I dont want to say that we should cross boundaries and try to do everything, but do what we can when we can. We are lost in a terribly civilized way of functioning that we forget to be human. All we can think of -is legality, responsibility,working times, record keeping, etc. We look at patients from our own medical and sometimes philosophical viewpoints that we miss a lot- and are probably not helping them as much as we would think. I recently watched the movie- KINSEY, which only reinforced my view. I am sure many including doctors, continue to hold what I would call negative views expressed by some in the movie. I am sure there were many such people who studied and applied knowledge irrespective of the species including Da Vinci. In Psychiatry we had a lot of pioneers in the learning theories who studied animals. We read about it but have lost that contact. We need to liberate ourselves from the conventional way of listening, reading, examining, thinking, learning, teaching, emoting, treating, researching, analysing........ Competing interests: None declared |
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Graham Easton, Assistant editor BMJ
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Martin Alder's (Editor of the Veterinary Record) email address was printed incorrectly in this article. His correct email address is: editorial@bva-edit.co.uk Competing interests: None declared |
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Dr JK Anand, Retired doctor N/A, Mr JW Myles, Retired Orthopaedic Surgeon
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We are pleased to see this joint issue. Might we suggest going a step further? The veterinary surgeons, at least in our experience of keeping pets, provide ready access and are available out of hours. They have a fund of common sense which enables them to apply their pharmacological expertise to prescribing for a wide spectrum of zoological species. They are able to elicit physical signs and to interpret them with a minimum of history. And, they are good at dealing with bereavement. We feel that vets should be authorised to prescribe for humans within the limits of their own clinical judgement, to carry out simple suturing and debridement. We suggest that the foregoing would not be a step too far. < Competing interests: None declared |
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Janet Menage, GP Bulkington Surgery CV12 9JB
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I wondered if doctors & veterinarians might be interested in taking part in a piece of preliminary research which I am carrying out in General Practice at the present time. I am collecting data via anonymous questionnaire comparing the weight and height of owners and their dogs, with a view to ascertaining whether the Body Mass Index of the two species correlate. Since dog obesity is, I gather, a current issue, it may reveal useful information in terms of causation, ie. environmental versus genetic factors. My understanding is that BMI is not usually used as a measure of dog obesity but I have taken 'weight in kilogrammes divided by (dog's height at the shoulder in metres) squared' as a comparative figure. Certainly, looking at my own animals' measurements, there does appear to be a potential link. If any doctors or vets would like a copy of the questionnaire in order to accumulate data for the study, please email janet.menage@lineone.net and return completed forms to Dr Janet Menage, Bulkington Surgery, School Road, Bulkington, Warwickshire CV12 9JB (or) send scanned forms via email. Any findings will be published at a later date. Competing interests: None declared |
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