Doctors, quite rightly, occupy a very eminent position in society. When our health fails, it is to them that we turn for help. In most cases, what they give us works- the infection is cleared, the temperature lowered, the cough tamed and we are back on our feet. Doctors have worked extremely hard to occupy the position they do. In most cases, they studied for close to a decade from their late teens onwards.
I do wonder, however, whether that skill and training is not sometimes being squandered. A lot of the work that General Practitioners do is fairly routine prescribing for coughs and colds. That is, I think, a tremendous waste of time. Would it not be a more efficient use of scarce skills if a new profession, that of community nurses with limited prescribing powers, was created? Such a move would free up the time of GPs to concentrate on more serious cases and make nursing a more attractive career option for young people. There would be safeguards. Where a patient persistently complains, for example, of a particular symptom, they would be referred to a doctor. But routine cases would be dealt with by the new nurses.
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