Aifric is a vocationally trained GP who practises in an outer suburb of Melbourne. She migrated to Australia in 2014, from Ireland. She studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and undertook her specialist training in General Practice in the greater Dublin area. She is married with 2 children. She became part of the Dr Sicknote team in early 2016.
“Common Sense is not so common”
This famous line by the French philosopher Voltaire is often quoted, and many will say it’s quite true. But I would argue that when it comes to minor illnesses, such as the common cold, gastroenteritis or migraine, people, by and large, are well able to exercise common sense and diagnose themselves correctly. Furthermore, most people are capable of appropriately managing these ailments, whether that involves bed rest, a dose of paracetamol, an increase in fluid intake, or a day off work to recover, and avoid the needless spread of infection in the workplace.
However, at this point, common sense often hits a roadblock. Many workplaces demand a medical certificate for the most minor of ailments, and for very short periods of sick leave. The obligatory visit to the doctor’s surgery involves expense and discomfort for the sick person, whilst potentially promoting spread of infectious disease in the waiting room. An appointment is occupied with the doctor, which might have been better used for a more unwell person. In some respects it also converts the doctor into a rubber-stamping administrator, who is being asked to validate the good judgement of a perfectly intelligent person.
There are wider implications too. The above system may adversely affect how society interacts with the health services, by reinforcing a belief that doctors somehow have a monopoly on medical knowledge. It removes independence and autonomy from the patient and can erode peoples’ confidence to self-care and to appropriately manage their own simple health problems. In most countries, demand for healthcare continues to escalate, with people living longer and ever-increasing levels of chronic disease. It is thus imperative that we find ways to help people to self-manage simple illnesses efficiently and to allocate scarce resources where they are most needed.
Online doctor services are now emerging, and these can enable people to obtain medical care for a wide variety of ailments, as well as providing medical certificates where appropriate. Improving access to reliable online health information is also a challenge. The recently published Australian Child Health Poll, conducted by the Royal Children’s Hospital, discovered that whilst 60% of parents use websites, blogs and online forums to access health information regarding their children, only 6% trusted such sources “a lot” and 36% “did not trust them at all”. In a world where online connectivity is very much a part of daily life, there is surely a place for improved resources to help people safely and confidently access high quality health information as well as trusted medical services that can be appropriately delivered remotely.
Evolution of online healthcare is going to represent a large change to the status quo, and may seem daunting to some. It will engender doubt in certain sectors of the medical and patient community and will challenge traditional attitudes towards healthcare and the very nature of the doctor-patient relationship. But if properly conceptualised, developed and delivered, it could be of huge benefit to society: patients, employers, doctors, and ultimately the taxpayer-as these developments bring scope to significantly reduce healthcare spending.
To quote another wise man, and compatriot of mine , George Bernard Shaw-
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”.
