Modern medicine has its place. My Zildish GP was a refreshingly honest kinda cove; he said to me on a number of occasions that (a) he didn't really know what was wrong, but that time would probably cure it, and (b)it would be up to me whether I bothered with analgesics - i.e. he wouldn't prescribe anything unless I really really wanted him to.
Where a good GP comes into his/her own is in spotting the Doc's "five percent" situations. When do the symptoms indicate something serious, as opposed to something transitory? Unfortunately, not a lot of GPs are good at that. Until you present symptoms which are quite gross they just do the modern equivalent of "take two aspirins and call me in the morning", which appears to be "take two amoxyls and don't call me until the ambulance has arrived in future"
However sometimes they do spot it, even if it's already too late. My secretary a couple of career-moves ago was tired and had swollen ankles. Not unusual for a woman in her late fifties, you would have thought. She finally (at the urging of her colleagues) went to her GP, who spent five minutes examining her and then called an ambulance to take her to the oncology unit at the local hospital where she died of leukaemia THREE WEEKS later. Yet she didn't look that sick. The GP just happened to recognise the symptoms.
