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Robert L. Kane, Author's Response to Commentaries, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 57, Issue 12, 1 December 2002, Pages M813–M814, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/57.12.M813
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Extract
The quality and imagination of the responses to my thought-piece more than justify the original effort (1). It is hardly surprising that a group of geriatricians should rise to the challenge of explicating why there is a future for geriatrics. The issue is not how we see ourselves but how others see us. If medical students don't see the need, what can we expect from society as a whole? Patients and families love the time and attention they get from an interdisciplinary assessment, but no one seems ready to foot the bill for it. The United Kingdom has opted to try to introduce some basic principles of geriatric care into general practice, but it has not tackled head-on the issues of providing real geriatric care. Geriatricians there do not serve the truly frail in institutions. They remain hospital based, where their skills in acute medicine may be plied, and commingled with those of internists; but the name of the game is chronic care.