【英语时差8,16】Family Doctors 家庭医生

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Family doctors are usually called GPs, or general practitioners². My name is Louis Brassy. I’m a so-called general practitioner¹ doctor in the centre of London. I’m one of two doctors working in our clinic and between us we have, let’s say, 3,500 patients. England still has a system which it’s had, really, since the Second World War. Where theoretically every patient in England is registered with one family doctor, almost always near where they live. If they’re ever sick, if any of the family are sick, they go directly, initially³ to the family doctor, unless it’s an emergency, who most cases, I think 80% of cases he can sort out by himself. And about 20% of cases, if they need to see a specialist, he will send them on to whichever specialty⁴ is most appropriate. Rather than approaching a specialist directly, anybody who is sick under normal circumstances will go and see his general practitioner who is qualified⁵ at a basic level in all sorts of different illnesses and can provide primary care. First of all people tend to be registered with their GPs for a long period of time, so after a few years you tend to know the whole family, you tend to know each patient and the context in which they are turning up. You tend to have all the records to hand, you tend to know what illnesses they’ve had, what it’s likely to be and what’s in the family generally; which sometimes helps you, rather than somebody who would just turn up to a doctor they’ve never seen before. No money is exchanged when you go to see a doctor in this country. We never ask for money for general medical services. The government pays us to look after patients using a kind of complex formula; a lot of which depends on how many people are registered with us.

1 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

2 practitioners   

n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师）

参考例句：

• one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
• The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的，但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句

3 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

4 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

5 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。