Today, I will talk a bit about doctoring in Belize since we had a whole day of house-calls:

We are thankful that we are able to practice Medicine in Belize according to our philosophy.  We are both House Call General Practioners and our services include chronic care, post-operative care, palliative care and minor procedures.  We see people of all ages from the elderly to babies to pregnant women.  These days, we find that doctors are so specialised that they are only confident with their specific field.  We, on the other hand are all-encompassing doctors with knowledge in every medical specialty.  Also, prior to Belize, we both already had experience in Tropical Medicine (tropical infections, land and marine envenomation and parasites) as we had worked in Northern Australia.

As doctors, we feel that one of the most important factors of proper care and management is giving time to the patient.  We purposely book one hour for each patient so that we have the time to assess a patient properly and answer all their questions.  In our experience, this time factor is critical for the patient to feel satisfied and get better.

I want to share with you an experience which I had in my early days as a medical doctor.  I used to work under a very stern consultant and every morning, we walked through the hospital to do the ward round.  He used to dictate to me what was required in terms of further investigations including blood and diagnostic tests and I would be scribbling like mad as he ran through the blood tests which he wanted,

He would say, “FBC, WCC, U+E, LFTs, etc, etc,” and then he would look me squarely in the eyes and say, slowly and deliberately, “TLC.”

Tender Loving Care.  I will never forget it because he was such an old cantankerous bat who never smiled nor made a joke.  But, he taught me a very special lesson in being a doctor.  This story still makes me smile to this very day.