Mrs ALLUIN feels that, overall, the approach of both medicines
is equivalent and that Chinese and western medicines are roughly parallel.
Therefore, following technical progress, the human dimension has been
reintroduced into western medicine after having been discarded for
a time to the benefit of drugs.
She emphasised that, behind the symptoms observed, there may be
a context which the patient must be made to sense, but patients find
it hard to admit they have a problem other than that for which they
are consulting; in effect many people somatise, which requires devoting
time to them to sort matters out, particularly regarding patients
who find it hard to speak openly.
In the case of long-tenn treatments, such as oxygenotherapy, an
educational approach is necessary as part of overall treatment-it
is not enough just to give oxygen.
Generally speaking, ov erall treatinent for patients is developing
in pneumology so that patients become aware of their health and participate
in their treatment.
On request by Mr COCUDE, Mrs ALLUIN presented the SPIR: Service
de suivi des pneumoconiotiques et insuffisants respiratoires (Department
monitoring pneumoconiotics and respiratory insufficiency sufférers).
This departinent, which comes under the AHNAC (Association Hospitalière
Nord Artois Cliniques), has two activities:
- Annual monitoring of sufférers of pneunioconiosis, silicosis
or asbestosis, and screening of cancerogenic substances such as
benzene and asbestos in the mining social security scheme.
- The ADER: association pour les soins à domicile d'insuffisants
respiratoires (home care association for respiratory insufficiency
sufférers) monitors approximately 1600 patients in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
using at home ambulatory oxygen equipment or a ventilator. They
are pneumoconiotics, but there are also many patients sufféring
from chronic bronchitis.
