Kiellands forceps delivery.

Abstract

what can be done before more extensive specialist services can be provided. In this respect the role of general practitioners and private practice doctors has recently been canvassed. There has been much criticism both of the liberality of prescribing by independent doctors on the one hand and of the reluctance to prescribe by special clinics. This debate has been reflected in journals and the media and needs to be examined very carefully. The combined experience of the special drug de? pendence clinics as put forward here requires serious con? sideration. Overprescribing is widely accepted as harmful. The singlehanded doctor, whether general practitioner or con? sultant in the NHS or private practice, who has little or no experience of addicts is a vulnerable target for the drug seeker. So have been consultants and juniors in special treatment clinics where a team approach is not used. The substance of this communication has been agreed by those working in London drug dependence clinics. They consider that their experience will be helpful to those ad ministrators (medical and otherwise) who are faced with responding urgently to the rapid increase in the addict popula? tion?and who are required to implement the recommendations of expert bodies such as the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs?and the increasing political and public pressures surrounding this problem.