| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Metz, to her relatives, annoyed over a fickle patient, conversation with Dr. Collanerie, the radiologist at Plantieres, mostly on the local reluctance to consider progress, his own wish to open a centralised institute of research, bacteriology, x-ray, etc., to which doctors could send specimens for examination, which fell through, civilian doctors' trickery over x-rays, examples of misdiagnosis by elderly doctors who know nothing of the advances made during the war and are not prepared to admit it, Plantieres is however a model of good practice, where no fracture is set without an x-ray and no treatment progresses without chemical analysis of sputum, urine or faeces, the older doctors will not pass surgical cases over to surgeons, either, and make terrible mistakes, Buisson says that they would rather receive a fee for an operation than pass the case on for massage, the doctors often do massage themselves, though they have no idea how to, Dr. Lentz' inadequate reference for a patient with sciatica, the day of the family doctor is past, as people will change their doctors easily, Amelia is becoming frustrated with pointless cases, she is also irritated at being asked to assist at the Diaconess' Christmas fete, the local hospitals are closing because there is now an up-to-date hospital in the mining districts which used to send their patients to Metz. |