The Doctors' Dilemma

Abstract

IN the preface to the Doctor's Dilemma, George Bernard Shaw says:Make up your mind how many doctors the community needs to keep it well. Do not register more or less than this number; and let registration constitute the doctor a civil servant with a dignified living wage paid out of public funds.Although this statement was made in 1911, it has a remarkably contemporary ring and could as easily be made in 1978 by a consumer advocate or by a government official. It also constitutes the major dilemma of American medicine today — that is, how to deploy the . . .