ABSTRACT
Western medicine is now facing a crisis. Modern technology, its very life blood, is failing to deliver the goods. This goes deeper than one's inability to cure a whole range of common and serious diseases. Further than the truth that it is often used inappropriately, for instance, in the elderly or the unhappy where psychological or environmental factors are frequently more relevant than the medicine itself. Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials show an average placebo effect of around 30%. The placebo effect is about enabling patients to rediscover their self-healing powers. This is the basis of the 'New medicine' but it is in fact a very old medicine, a rediscovery. Hippocrates saw the role of the doctor as that of 'medical attendant to the patient's own self-healing powers'. Primary care groups and trusts represent a threat and an opportunity for the physician healer.
