experience not a bad thing

The new partner in our practice is less than half my age; indeed I was practising medicine some years before he was born. He has the missionary zeal of youth, but a lack of subtlety in his operations that betrays his immaturity. A man came while I was away on holiday asking for viagra. Now the government has viewed viagra, perhaps understandably, as being somewhat different from other prescribable preparations and restricts its use on an FP10, or the NHS prescription, for patients with a range of nasty conditions such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis. So the young doctor said no. But severe depression is also on the list, and I had always felt hitherto that his various problems (he has hereditary blindness, for instance), which, in my view at least, easily qualified him for NHS funding.

But my partner has a good heart. Presumably feeling some misgivings about his decision, he decided to refer the patient to the local sexual disorders clinic for their opinion on the subject.

I remain confident he will come through as a really fine doctor one day- though this will take years. It certainly did with me...