(Continued)
But things changed fast. It was exciting bringing modern medicine into the community, sometimes with a few surprises. I had one middle-aged patient in the village with pneumonia. So daily visits, Nurse, linctus and poultice for dry cough, later brown mixture for loose cough, beef stew and fluids and the latest strongest antibiotic. At the end of a week he was better and his chest almost completely clear. I thought that would have taken 12­14 days in the past. I said, "you've finished your antibiotics". "Yes", he replied, "We'm finished they botics". "We?" I said. "Yup I gave 'em to the wife, she's better at swollerin 'em than me". When I could stop laughing I told him that if he ever told a living soul I'd have him off my list.

As the years passed, there were more young families in the village but no more confinements at home. Patients became less fearful of hospitals and more used to out-patient visits. The 'pill for all ills' age had arrived and the remarkable advances in technology were here. People read about treatments in the unofficial medical textbooks of the daily press and they wanted to discuss them with their doctor.

You still have a village surgery. It would be nice to see it lasting into the new century and I am sure it still has a useful function.

Dr. Donald Burton