https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22858 Sat, 04 Apr 2026 05:41:54 GMT 2026-04-04T05:41:54Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22871 Title: The consultation Abstract: We know this to be true politically, in unhappy marriages and in many other spheres of life. However there is evidence that this is just as true in the medical setting as it is in ordinary life. The area of medicine where we communicate or try and communicate with our patients is the consultation. Spence in 1960 wrote "The essential unit of medical practice is the occasion when in the intimacy of the consulting room or sick room a person who is ill or believes himself to be ill seeks the advice of a doctor whom he trusts. This is the consultation and all else in the practice of medicine derives from it" So if the consultation lies right at the heart of all that we are trying to do as doctors it is right that we look at it, analyse it, study where we fail in it and try and do it better. There are several ways in which we can look at the consultation - several models which we can use to analyse it. First of all there is the medical model. Sun, 01 Sep 1991 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22871 1991-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22867 Title: Management of hyperlipidaemia : a protocol Abstract: A protocol is an agreed method of dealing with a process that relates to medicine which is written down, worked to by a group of people and which is regularly reviewed. 1. One needs a protocol to ensure consistent management between doctors; 2. One also needs a protocol to guide fellow paramedics about what one needs them to do. 3. A further reason to have a protocol is that if one is working as a team say in the care of diabetics, if everybody involved in the care - the specialist, the GP, the nurse and the health educator have all been involved in the drawing up of the protocol they will all feel committed to it and they will all know what other members of the team are doing. 4. Having drawn up a protocol, one can then assess what skills are needed by every- body involved in the care. If needed, further education can be given if anybody involved lacks the necessary skills. 5. If one has a protocol, one has defined exactly what one is aiming to do and if good records are kept after a few months one can go back and assess whether one has kept to one's protocol and what standard of care has been given to the patients. This is practice audit. Sun, 01 Sep 1991 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22867 1991-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22866 Title: Family doctor-consultant relationship Abstract: The relationship between the Family Doctor and the Consultant is of necessity moulded through the various encounters that take place in the course of their work and leisure and which are listed in Table I. They are encounters that each one of us is so familiar with but perhaps has never stopped to think how they affect our perception of one another. Sun, 01 Sep 1991 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22866 1991-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22864 Title: Developmental screening in family practice Abstract: Paediatric screening is an important area of medical practice because, in the words of Dr Mary Sheridan, ''There is general agreement that the younger the age at which children with physical, mental, emotional or social disabilities are discovered and fully assessed, the more hopeful is the prognosis for amelioration or complete rehabilitation. " Family Doctors have many paediatric consultations, and they know the parents and therefore the family and social background, so they are in a good position to integrate personal preventive medicine with curative medicine. In the past the emphasis was on dealing with individual paediatric problems as and when they presented themselves to the medical profession, but nowadays the trend is to try and look at the whole child. Sun, 01 Sep 1991 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22864 1991-09-01T00:00:00Z