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Of course, it’s all the fault of “Dr. Kildare”. Had the original radio series not been such a success, it would never have been transferred to the TV screen, making Richard Chamberlain a star. This is not to say that physicians had escaped glamorisation before. There were movies showing surgeons as gods. But “Dr. Kildare” was the first prime-time series with a young hero leading an experienced cast in a hospital melodrama. As a result, society was finally convinced that becoming a hospital doctor was the coolest thing on the planet. This completed the cultural task of giving the medical profession top status, eclipsing the work of Raymond Burr in “Perry Mason” who had done so much to make the defense attorney seem the most desirable job. So the boomers grew up with the fixed idea that becoming a doctor and saving lives in a hospital setting was “the” career path to follow. One of the first victims of this transference was the role of primary care physician working in their offices or local clinics. Although a socially necessary position, it lacked charisma and, from the 1960s onward, it grew challenging to persuade newly qualified doctors to work more anonymously. Only those with a social conscience followed this path, taking less money and working longer hours than those who stayed in secondary and tertiary care. That’s why, today, the vast majority of primary physicians are old and coming up to retirement. Continue reading →

When at our mother’s knee, we all hear this friendly voice warning us never to forget, “The world is full of thieves and villains.” It first surfaces in unexplained instructions never to walk off with adults we do not know. This is “stranger danger” and it’s only in later years we realize how many predators there are and what they want. Then come all the other warnings about value. This is the “if it’s cheap, it must be bad value warning. Yet, remarkably, we never seem to care when buying a fake Rolex for a few dollars. It just seems like a fun thing to be able to wrap round our wrists and impress our friends for a few hours. The fact this may be stealing from the owners of the brand in some way never seems to connect. Well, ladies and gentlemen, here’s an adult warning for you. There are folk out there on the internet who want to steal from you and, this time, it’s personal. You are the ones who will bear the loss. These particular thieves pick a product where your own defenses may be down. This is the erectile dysfunction market. It exists in both a direct and indirect form. Continue reading →