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Reference ID U27OL0

Headline France: "The end of an epoch" by Robert Doisneau, 1958

Description The end of an epoch

68-year-old Dr Edmond, country doctor in a small town in the Department of the Creuse, a rugged, highland area in the center of France, came from a long line of country doctors: The Edmonds have been country doctors through father and son since the reign of Louis XIV. Dr Edmond's realm covered a radius of 20 kilometers around his home. In 40 years of practice (during which time he wore out ten cars, travelling a million kilometers on his rounds and attending some 150,000 patients), Dr Edmond saw public health problems shift from tuberculosis, venereal diseases, death in child birth and infant mortality to cancer. "I do not get any more tuberculosis" said Dr Edmond. "Venereal diseases have disappeared and the babies are all born at the maternity ward with the bill paid by 'Social Security'. Only 30 km away, I have a radiologist, different specialists, two surgeons, a 90-bed hospital and a 60-bed clinic at my disposal. If there should be an epidemic, the Departmental Health Service takes over. Today, I am as well equipped as a town doctor to treat my patients. Perhaps even better, because I know them all as well as if they were my own family".

Kitchen-table surgery is rare nowadays. Instead, patients are brought to a hospital or clinic for expert surgical attendance, the National Health Service paying most of the expenses. Here, Dr Edmond runs quickly through case history of one of his patients for the surgeon.

Asset date 01/01/1958

Country, area, WHO office France

City Genouillac

WHO Region EURO

Consent No

File size 1.80 MB

Visibility class:

Public

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