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What is a doctor, and what does a doctor do?

Martin B Van Der Weyden
Med J Aust 2005; 183 (11): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb00033.x
Published online: 5 December 2005

The Productivity Commission’s recent proposal to modify the roles of health professionals raises these important questions

A century ago, the role of doctors was clear and simple. Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, noted that it was “to acquire facility in the art of diagnosis . . . to grow in clinical judgment . . . to appreciate the relative value of symptoms and the physical signs . . . to give to the patient and his friends a forecast or prognosis . . . [and] to conduct the treatment that the patient may be restored to health . . . or, failing that, be given the greatest possible measure of relief”.1 It was the age of acute care, and medicine’s knowledge base was contained in a single tome — Osler’s The principles and practice of medicine. Doctors accounted for about one in every three health professionals,2 and practised as general practitioners or consultant physicians and surgeons. The payment for health care was a contract between the patient and the doctor, and not the business of government.


  • The Medical Journal of Australia, Sydney, NSW.


Correspondence: 

  • 1. Osler W. Modern medicine. Its theory and practice. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers, 1907: 34.
  • 2. Aitken LH. Achieving an interdisciplinary workforce [editorial]. N Engl J Med 2003; 348: 164-166.
  • 3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia’s health 2004. Canberra: AIHW, 2004: 259.
  • 4. Gavel P, Evans J, Young J. Who are the doctors of the 21st century? International Medical Workforce Collaborative 9th Conference; 2005 Nov 15-19; Melbourne. Available at: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/amwac/amwac/9conf.html (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 5. Birrell RJ. Australian policy on overseas-trained doctors. Med J Aust 2004; 181: 635-639. <MJA full text>
  • 6. Duckett SJ. Interventions to facilitate health workforce restructure. Aust N Z Health Policy 2005; 2: 14. Available at: http://www.anzhealthpolicy.com/content/2/1/14 (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 7. Hawkes N. Plan for nurses to prescribe drugs infuriates doctors. The Times (London) 2005; 11 Nov. Available at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1867520,00.html (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 8. Australian Health Ministers’ Conference. National health workforce strategic framework. Sydney: the Conference, 2004. Available at: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/amwac/pdf/NHW_stratfwork_AHMC_2004.pdf (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 9. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Australian Health Workforce Officials’ Committee. Report to Australian Health Ministers. Review of Australian specialist medical colleges. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2005. Available at: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/699578 (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 10. Australian Government Productivity Commission. Australia’s health workforce. Productivity Commission position paper. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2005. Available at: http://www.pc.gov.au/study/healthworkforce/positionpaper/index.html (accessed Nov 2005).
  • 11. Canadian Medical Association. The future of medicine. CMAJ 2000; 163: 757-760.
  • 12. Canadian Medical Association series of health care discussion papers. Looking at the future of health, health care and medicine. Ottawa: CMA, 2000.

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