Family doctor Health Dictionary

The academic title granted to someone who has a university degree higher than a master’s degree. Some UK universities grant a medical doctorate (MD) for a research thesis of approved standard. In Britain, ‘doctor’ is also the title given to a quali?ed medical practitioner registered by the General Medical Council, usually after he or she has obtained a bachelor’s degree or a diploma in medicine and surgery. In the UK a doctor has to spend a year of supervised practice in a recognised hospital post before he or she is registered as fully quali?ed, but specialists have to obtain further training and higher quali?cations before they can be accredited and therefore practise as specialists in the NHS. General practitioners must complete a three-year vocational training course before practising as an independent GP. In Britain, surgical specialists are customarily addressed as ‘Mr’. Other countries have di?erent regulations.... doctor

The deliberate limitation or spacing of births. Strategies for family planning include the different methods of contraception. (See also birth control.)... family planning

A form of psychotherapy that aims to promote greater harmony and understanding between members of a family, most often between parents and adolescent children.... family therapy

A charity which helps families with disabled children to obtain good-quality information, support and – most of all – contact with other families with children who have the same disorder. This includes children with speci?c and rare conditions and those with special educational needs. The charity has many local parent groups throughout the UK and publishes a comprehensive directory with brief descriptions of each condition followed by contact addresses, phone numbers and web addresses. It also has a central helpline and a team of parent advisers.

See www.cafamily.org.uk... contact a family

A taxonomic group of similar, related, animals. The taxonomic group that is below Order, but above Genus.... family

A form of specialty practice in which medical practitioners provide continuing comprehensive primary care within the context of the family unit.... family practice

Published 1970 by the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Hunan Province, China, to supply its barefoot doctors with a basic guide in their work of serving the rural population (“. . . because they worked in the paddy fields like any other commune member, barefooted and with trouser legs rolled up, they were given the name ‘barefoot doctors’ ” (Pekin Review, 1977)). ... barefoot doctor’s manual

see medical assistant.... barefoot doctor

see general practitioner.... family practitioner