He felt tired. Glancing round the room he saw a pile of paper work with correspondence from the hospital, insurance reports and requests for sick lines. On the desk was a ceramic jar full of tongue depressors, smooth spare pieces for an otoscope, a brass banker’s lamp, some loose paper clips and a stethoscope coiled in on itself.
Opposite him, hung on the wall at eye level was a painting called ‘The Doctor’. It showed a physician leaning over his feverish patient, a sick child in a makeshift bed, and it displayed many of the good qualities of a doctor.
He stretched back, running his hands through his hair and immediately became self-conscious.
A group of curious visitors had pressed themselves up to the glass and were looking in. He got out of the chair and left the exhibit. General practice had been closed down at the start of the century and all that was left were curiosities like this. The sign read, ‘circa 2014’.
Dr Kevin Hinkley is a GP in Aberdeen.
