The original Beecham Manual for General Practice was produced by Dr Selwyn Carson, of Christchurch, New Zealand, whose objective was a set of instructions for patient care for his practice team. Dr Ed Gawthorn of Melbourne, Australia, edited an Australian version again published and distributed by Beecham Research Laboratories.

We share with our colleagues the difficulties presented by the increasing volume of drugs available for our use in the care of patients. The introduction of new and effective preparations has added to our problems both in keeping up to date and, paradoxically, in their proper selection and use. There are yet further difficulties in general practice because of the nature of the diseases and situations encountered; uncer- tainties in the preciseness of di-a.gnosis, in the likely course and outcome of diseases and in the particular characteristics of the individual patient. We have attempted to...

Why yet another book on clinical diagnosis? The profusion ofmedical text booksfor studentsand young postgraduates is known to all ofus, and so also is the time-consuming and frequently frus- trating search in these books for the relevant facts we need, so often sub- merged in a mass of information which we do not really require. The traditional textbook that most clinicians have used in their training may well be written in the leisurely, discursive and unstructured style much loved by our teachers of old, but perhaps out of place in modern medical education where knowledge is so rapidly...

Herewe offer anew approach to understanding and managing common medical conditions. With the needs of our readers in mind we present clearer, more extensive and more expansive views on them. Traditional medical textbooks are wordy tomes with well worn patterns dealing in set order with 'causes, symptoms and signs, diagnosis and treatment'. They offer formal instant snapshots of diseases. We have devised an economic synoptic style, and we have endeavoured to give acomprehensive and an on-going long term movepicture ofeach condition and to relate this to the analysisofsymptoms and signs, to...

DDDDDDDDDDDDD Effective management logically follows accurate diagnosis. Such logic often is difficult to apply in practice. Absolute diagnostic accuracy may not be possible, particularly in the field of primary care, when management has to be on analysis of symptoms and on knowledge of the individual patient and family. This series follows that on Problems in Practice which was concerned more with diagnosis in the widest sense and this series deals more definitively with general care and specific treatment of symptoms and diseases. Good management must include knowledge of the nature, course...

This fourth edition of Common Diseases comes just over 10 years after the first. There has been change and counterchange in the primary health care (PHC) field. One change has been the tendency to replace 'general practice' by 'PHC'. Vocational training has become compulsory. With larger group practices have come formalized teams and teamwork, increasing con- cern with the business side of general practice and attempts to achieve best values for money and maximal profits. On the clinical side there have been enthusiasms for prevention, early diagnosis, anticipatory care, screening and quality...

Administering the National Health Service (NHS) is asking to navigate without reliable and sufficient information. It is amazing how a national service costing more than GBP15,OOOM (1984) and employing more than 1 million has existed since 1948. It is likely that with better appropriate data there could be economies and great efficiency and effectiveness. Paradoxically there is much data on the NHS, published and unpublished, that has remained unexploited and unused. In this book we have taken up the challenges of showing the availability of data and its presentation so that clinicians,...

John P. Horder, President, 1980-82 The first 30 years of the College have been an exciting experience for those most closely involved. Some have already passed on, but this account has been written soon enough for many of the actors to be historians. Future members of the College will be grateful to them for what they have written, as well as for what they did as a remarkably determined and harmonious team. Students of twentieth century medicine in this country will also be grateful for a first-hand account of the development of an institution which has been closely associated with, and...

This book is a personal testimony of faith in the future and in the progression to better health and a better life. It is the testament of a rough and ready measuring device - a practising physician who sought to compare and contrast three systems of medical care to see what can be distilled from them to help us all in achieving better services for medical care. Medical care as a human and civic right is the con- cern of us all. Seeking to live longer and in good health we depend on medical, social and welfare services to attain this goal. Yet it is quite obvious that there are limits and...

Although we have no good definition of 'health', all people have their own ideas of whether they are healthy or not. Based on personal experience and knowledge each person comes to accept that within themselves there is a normal range of feelings and performance, departure from which could be considered abnormal or unhealthy. Despite the many amazing technological advances made over recent decades it cannot be said that access to advanced medical care is the main determining factor in the healthiness or otherwise of a society. Even in these modern times most diseases and health problems are...