Modern medicine can boast a number of fantastic success stories.
There are now operating robots that can remove cancerous prostate glands very precisely without causing too much collateral damage. We can replace worn out hips and knees and implant lenses in the older eye so that no glasses are necessary anymore. Instead of bypasses we are now inserting stents into blocked coronary arteries and with this method avoid having to cut open the chest. Impressive treatments.
Where we as doctors are not so successful is with other problems. No cure for the annoying common cold, the population is becoming heavier and more depressed, and we have no fantastic solutions to offer. Very worrying is the number of young adults with serious mental health issues. In the US one third of teenagers are on psychiatric medication whilst on the other end of the age scale a huge number of patients with dementia are often looked after and treated sub-optimally.
In our brave new world medicine still treats humans like cars where you mend a mechanical problem when it is happening. The significant difference between men and machines is that we humans have a soul and much more powerful self maintenance and healing mechanisms than machines. We are good at curing but not passionate and focused when it comes to preventing. We know a lot but do not put the knowledge into practice.
In the Covid pandemic we knew that it affected the overweight, diabetic and heart patients much more severely than the average population. I saw no effort of the national health systems to encourage people to lose weight, reduce blood sugar and instead of trying to uplift the locked down people with the best motivators, health gurus and celebrities we were all under daily attack with fear creating messages and death statistics.
In the Family Medical Centres, which were founded in 1988 by the British General Practitioner Dr Robin Thomson, we have an innovative approach.
We try to prevent the health problem before it appears. We work in a team of 20 highly motivated health professionals where all team members are in constant dialogue.
We are focused on identifying the individual risk areas for our patients and developing in a team effort a strategy to avoid the problem from developing.
Our great strength is that we can use the joint and interwoven knowledge of 20 doctors from 20 different specialties.
We also believe that if you look better you will feel better in your skin and integrate plastic and cosmetic procedures in our health action plans.
We are privileged to be connected to the best of the best in their area like the plastic surgeon Dr Iberico Nogueira, a personal scholar of Pitangui and the celebrity British surgeon Mr Barry Jones.
We have served our patients for the last 35 years with the promise that we will always offer an appointment on the day and Doctors Thomson and Kaiser have over all these years gone out on numerous house calls, day and night, weekends and holidays.
We love what we do and are grateful that we can serve our community.
Family Medical Centres have refurbished and expanded the two Clinics in Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo. We are now boasting 12 consultation rooms, a fully kitted dental and eye clinic, daily laboratory services, an ultrasound room, a completely equipped ENT suite and the unique Algarve pain centre lead by Dr Miguel Costa.
For appointments ring: 289 398 009
www.family-medical-centre.pt
Article written by Dr Thomas Kaiser, MD, PhD, ZD, Medical Director, Medical Centre Vale do Lobo
