# The family doctor



## chic (Oct 4, 2014)

Whenever I think about the "good old days" a central figure of those happier times was the family doctor. Remember him? When a family member was sick, you phoned the doctor. He'd show up minutes later on your stoop, black bag in tow with rememdies for everything in there. You didn't have to drive to his office or the hospital with a raging fever and sit for an hour in a waiting room crowded with coughing sneezing infectious strangers filling out family history forms, blah blah blah. He knew you and your family and the family history of illnesses for at least three generations. Even so, he was patient and he listened to you. If necessary he gave the healthiest member of the family a prescription to fill for you and if everyone in the family was down with the flu, he'd phone the local family owned pharmacy and they'd deliver.

Best of all house calls were $15.00. Take that Obamacare. No one was uninsured because health care was truly affordable. 

I still miss the family doctor.


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## QuickSilver (Oct 4, 2014)

Thankfully with OBAMACARE.... we have less and less uninsured... Except of course in the States that would RATHER have a high rate of uninsured people..


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## hollydolly (Oct 4, 2014)

YesI remember those days, very well, right up until about the late 80's our GP practice made house calls if you were too poorly to go to the surgery. Although much rarer now, Doctors still make house calls here in the Uk, but you have to be _*very sick *and pretty much housebound_ before they do, and it will usually be a visit from a locum doctor whom you've never met. 

The service is free within the NHS  in other words, we don't pay any money to the visiting doctor for a house-call.


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## Capt Lightning (Oct 6, 2014)

I liked the two doctors at my health centre, but now they have both retired.  There's nothing wrong with the two new (much younger)  ones, but I can't help thinking that while the young doctors  know all about medicine,  the older ones knew about people.


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## Meanderer (Oct 6, 2014)

They still show up in old movies.  The Doctor with his bag, being ushered into the darkened bedroom.  Later, he would re-appear with a few pills or bottle of meds.  They delivered personal care before it became "Personal Care".


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## Pam (Oct 6, 2014)

Can't fault my GP practice. They still do house calls and provided you have phoned during surgery hours then it will be one of the practice doctors who visits, not a locum. Locums are only when you phone out of surgery hours. When my husband was in the last weeks of his illness, our doctor made a home visit and as he left he wrote down his mobile phone number on a slip of paper, handed it to me and said that if my husband needed anything, I had to phone anytime of the day or night and he would come straight out to him. Can't ask for more than that.


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## WhatInThe (Oct 6, 2014)

hollydolly said:


> YesI remember those days, very well, right up until about the late 80's our GP practice made house calls if you were too poorly to go to the surgery. Although much rarer now, Doctors still make house calls here in the Uk, but you have to be _*very sick *and pretty much housebound_ before they do, and it will usually be a visit from a locum doctor whom you've never met.
> 
> The service is free within the NHS  in other words, we don't pay any money to the visiting doctor for a house-call.



I think 60s/70s were the last house calls I know of. BUT the family doctor knew you and you could pay him out of pocket. My last old school family doctor never bothered with insurance until his last few years(early 90s) because someone complained-probably a new patient used to whipping out an insurance card. And that's the problem, too many never experienced the old school family doctor or had to pay completely out of pocket. This is why many assume or expect someone else(an insurance company) to pay for their medical care.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Oct 6, 2014)

Dr. Glaser. He was German and had such a thick accent that I never could understand what he was saying lol. He delivered me (and two of my sisters),he removed my mom`s gall bladder,he set all of our broken bones and stitched us up when necessary. He came to the house for ear infections and most all of our childhood illnesses. He lived less than a block away. But the greatest Dr. Glaser story I have was when my mom was pregnant with my sister,he was convinced that she was just not going to make it to the hospital in time. Her 4 prior labors had all been very,very fast-2 hours or less. My mom`s labors caused her to only "feel funny." So,Dr. Glaser would call her every day to see how she was feeling. Well,one day she decided to take me out for a walk. I was 4 years old. We walked around a few blocks and when we got back to the house,there was Dr. Glaser trying to climb in the kitchen window! His office nurse Ellen was with him. He had called to check on my mom,and when she didn`t answer,he flew up to the house. Whenshe also didn`t answer the door,he was convinced that she was inside giving birth lol. As it turned out,she did end up "feeling funny" the following Sunday morning,met him at his office for a quick check,and was so close that he drove her to the hospital in his own car,my dad following behind. Now that was service!


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## Meanderer (Oct 6, 2014)

Mrs. Robinson said:


> Dr. Glaser. He was German and had such a thick accent that I never could understand what he was saying lol. He delivered me (and two of my sisters),he removed my mom`s gall bladder,he set all of our broken bones and stitched us up when necessary. He came to the house for ear infections and most all of our childhood illnesses. He lived less than a block away. But the greatest Dr. Glaser story I have was when my mom was pregnant with my sister,he was convinced that she was just not going to make it to the hospital in time. Her 4 prior labors had all been very,very fast-2 hours or less. My mom`s labors caused her to only "feel funny." So,Dr. Glaser would call her every day to see how she was feeling. Well,one day she decided to take me out for a walk. I was 4 years old. We walked around a few blocks and when we got back to the house,there was Dr. Glaser trying to climb in the kitchen window! His office nurse Ellen was with him. He had called to check on my mom,and when she didn`t answer,he flew up to the house. Whenshe also didn`t answer the door,he was convinced that she was inside giving birth lol. As it turned out,she did end up "feeling funny" the following Sunday morning,met him at his office for a quick check,and was so close that he drove her to the hospital in his own car,my dad following behind. Now that was service!



Now, if it had been Doctor Glaizer, he could have just broken a window!


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## Mrs. Robinson (Oct 6, 2014)

Meanderer said:


> Now, if it had been Doctor Glaizer, he could have just broken a window!



Why yes,he could have LOL!


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## chic (Oct 7, 2014)

Mrs. Robinson said:


> Dr. Glaser. He was German and had such a thick accent that I never could understand what he was saying lol. He delivered me (and two of my sisters),he removed my mom`s gall bladder,he set all of our broken bones and stitched us up when necessary. He came to the house for ear infections and most all of our childhood illnesses. He lived less than a block away. But the greatest Dr. Glaser story I have was when my mom was pregnant with my sister,he was convinced that she was just not going to make it to the hospital in time. Her 4 prior labors had all been very,very fast-2 hours or less. My mom`s labors caused her to only "feel funny." So,Dr. Glaser would call her every day to see how she was feeling. Well,one day she decided to take me out for a walk. I was 4 years old. We walked around a few blocks and when we got back to the house,there was Dr. Glaser trying to climb in the kitchen window! His office nurse Ellen was with him. He had called to check on my mom,and when she didn`t answer,he flew up to the house. Whenshe also didn`t answer the door,he was convinced that she was inside giving birth lol. As it turned out,she did end up "feeling funny" the following Sunday morning,met him at his office for a quick check,and was so close that he drove her to the hospital in his own car,my dad following behind. Now that was service!



That's a heartwarming story Mrs. Robinson. Thanks for sharing. I have wonderful memories of my family doctor too and miss his care still.


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 7, 2014)

I remember the doctor coming to our house when I was a child and giving us treatment.  My in-laws had a good older doctor, who was still making house calls for them in the 1990s.  The world is changing, I think I heard of a phone app that acts as your doctor, and doctor visits via Skype.


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## Falcon (Oct 7, 2014)

Meanderer said:


> Now, if it had been Doctor Glaizer, he could have just broken a window!



That really gave me a pane Meanderer.


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## Hagrid (Oct 7, 2014)

I love the Dr. Glaser story. And it reminds me of our own dear departed family doctor who moved in and put out his shingle diagonally across the street from us, when I was about 7. He was always there for us, parents and 5 siblings, and my mother thought the world of him. He _was_ like another dad. He was also very soft-hearted and had a sense of humor. Once, as he was heading out our door, having dealt with the latest sprained wrist or rough chest cold, a bottle of ketchup on the kitchen table popped its lid, causing the doc to mutter "Get me out of here!"
My favorite memory of him had to do with a checkup he gave me in his home clinic, again when I was about 8. At one point he handed me a stainless pot and told me to go into the john and urinate. I had no idea what he meant and decided that maybe he wanted me to go into the john and 'wait.' After a considerable 'wait' he finally popped his head in and said "I want you to take a leak!"


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## chic (Oct 8, 2014)

Hagrid said:


> I love the Dr. Glaser story. And it reminds me of our own dear departed family doctor who moved in and put out his shingle diagonally across the street from us, when I was about 7. He was always there for us, parents and 5 siblings, and my mother thought the world of him. He _was_ like another dad. He was also very soft-hearted and had a sense of humor. Once, as he was heading out our door, having dealt with the latest sprained wrist or rough chest cold, a bottle of ketchup on the kitchen table popped its lid, causing the doc to mutter "Get me out of here!"
> My favorite memory of him had to do with a checkup he gave me in his home clinic, again when I was about 8. At one point he handed me a stainless pot and told me to go into the john and urinate. I had no idea what he meant and decided that maybe he wanted me to go into the john and 'wait.' After a considerable 'wait' he finally popped his head in and said "I want you to take a leak!"



Hagrid, that's really sweet and funny too.


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## Meanderer (Oct 12, 2014)

We had Dr. McCormick who was in his 80's and wore a long white coat over a shirt and tie.  His office was in his house, on the next block.  I don't remember any house calls.  I can close my eyes and picture him. .....course this was just last week.
View attachment 10424


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## Butterfly (Oct 14, 2014)

I remember when my sister was very sick with scarlet fever and we were quarantined because of it, the family doc came to the house every day to be sure she was doing OK and that none of the rest of us had come down sick.

Back then, the family doc knew the family well and we knew him well, and trusted him -- he cared for at least three generations of us.  That was back when there was still some warmth and humanity and compassion in medicine.   Nowdays you're "the sprained ankle in room 4" instead of a real person.  And yes, we paid him out of pocket and it wasn't burdensome.


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## Lee (Oct 14, 2014)

A lot of Ontario Canadians do not have a family doctor....we rely on clinics where you likely get a different doctor each visit. My husband has some health issues and it does become a problem when one doctor looks at the chart and counteracts another doctors opinion. Go figure.


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## chic (Oct 14, 2014)

Butterfly said:


> I remember when my sister was very sick with scarlet fever and we were quarantined because of it, the family doc came to the house every day to be sure she was doing OK and that none of the rest of us had come down sick.
> 
> Back then, the family doc knew the family well and we knew him well, and trusted him -- he cared for at least three generations of us. That was back when there was still some warmth and humanity and compassion in medicine. Nowdays you're "the sprained ankle in room 4" instead of a real person. And yes, we paid him out of pocket and it wasn't burdensome.



It was the same in my family - 3 generations all cared for by the same physician and everybody seemed to enjoy much better health than we did after everything switched to specialists in hospitals. Bless that family doctor. He was one of the best.


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## chic (Oct 14, 2014)

Lee said:


> A lot of Ontario Canadians do not have a family doctor....we rely on clinics where you likely get a different doctor each visit. My husband has some health issues and it does become a problem when one doctor looks at the chart and counteracts another doctors opinion. Go figure.



So, Canadians don't have primary care physicians? That must make patients feel less confident. It would for me.


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## Lee (Oct 15, 2014)

chic said:


> So, Canadians don't have primary care physicians? That must make patients feel less confident. It would for me.



Most do have a family doctor but I believe that around 20% do not so they rely on clinics. A family doctor is easier to get in the big cities but smaller places have now tried different methods to "recruit" new doctors to their area.

We were left without a doctor when he passed away suddenly and our area is now using different recruitment methods to get the new graduates.

It's scary when you consider that up until recently some heart attack victims were being rushed across the border from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan for emergencies. Just recently they changed that to a trip to London, Ontario. For a city the size of Windsor this is disgraceful.


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## Twixie (Oct 15, 2014)

We had the same family doctor for 3 generations..and his son took over when he retired.

Friendly..confident...took his time..

What a difference to my last doctors..it was like a factory..in..out...everyone got no more than 10 minutes...you could see the doctor glancing at the clock as you were describing your symptoms...

Disgraceful...


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## jujube (Oct 18, 2014)

I remember being about five and having strep throat.  The doctor came to the house to give me a penicillin shot and I promptly hid under the bed.  Of course, my legs were sticking out.  Mom grabbed my feet, pulled me half way out, the doctor pulled down my pj bottoms and gave me a shot.  I scuttled back under the bed.  Doctor left and mom told me to come out whenever I was ready for some sherbet.  

Mom said that she and her brother both had their tonsils taken out on the kitchen table by the doctor.   He brought a nurse with him to administer ether.   How's that for one-stop service?


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## chic (Oct 20, 2014)

jujube said:


> I remember being about five and having strep throat. The doctor came to the house to give me a penicillin shot and I promptly hid under the bed. Of course, my legs were sticking out. Mom grabbed my feet, pulled me half way out, the doctor pulled down my pj bottoms and gave me a shot. I scuttled back under the bed. Doctor left and mom told me to come out whenever I was ready for some sherbet.
> 
> Mom said that she and her brother both had their tonsils taken out on the kitchen table by the doctor. He brought a nurse with him to administer ether. How's that for one-stop service?



Those family doctors were just awesome and doctors of today cannot compare. I, too, had strep throat (from mono) when I was 17. I couldn't even swallow my own spit. I was lying in agony watching all the food on tv shows while believing I would starve to death because I couldn't eat or swallow a thing. 
Enter our sweet little family doctor making his house call with penicillin in tow! Within hours I was eating a steak. God bless that man. He saved my life so many times. I love these memories.


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## jujube (Oct 20, 2014)

Remember the Public Health lady?   Sometimes she was a nurse and sometimes a social worker of sorts.  I remember that scarlet fever was going around our neighborhood and the Public Health lady came and put quarantine signs on the doors of everyone who had a kid with scarlet fever.  Ours always wore a business suit and carried a large purse full of forms.  Thus the old rope-skipping rhyme:
 "Here comes the doctor. 
Here comes the nurse. 
Here comes the lady 
with the alligator purse."


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