ABSTRACT
Present manpower data, inconclusive as they are, don’t exactly suggest that physicians are an endangered species, although in some rural areas of the country extinction is a real threat. Physicians might regard such an occupational hazard as a remote one – about as likely as being struck by lightning or sustaining injury while playing chess – but some medical associations have already drawn up a list of registered dangerous patients, and others are planning to do so. Medicine, as the British Medical Journal has noted, is a high-risk profession; in an age of declining manners, enhanced expectations and, often, impatience for instant gratification, it is getting even more hazardous. Lists of dangerous patients may be one solution; but physicians can’t be protected by scraps of paper. Psychiatrists and, to a lesser extent, family physicians are especially vulnerable.
