TY - JOUR T1 - A month as a GP in the earthquake area of Pakistan JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 224 LP - 225 VL - 56 IS - 524 AU - Jim Newmark Y1 - 2006/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/524/224.abstract N2 - Wednesday is set aside for the antenatal clinic here at Bach Christian Hospital, a small facility with about 50 beds and situated a few miles to the north of Abbotabad, Pakistan. As a male doctor I have little role and am currently enjoying a morning off from outpatients — much to the chagrin of my wife, also a GP, who has no such luxury. The scenery is beautiful in the foothills of the Himalayas, but the view belies the tragedy that occurred during the earthquake of a month ago [October 2005]. The combination of compassion fatigue and the topography of the area affected seem to be leading to the inevitability of a secondary wave of thousands of further deaths as winter approaches. This catastrophe would be too big for any country, rich or poor, to cope with alone. Pakistan is not rich.Our month's stay here was planned some time ago and long before the earthquake. Our son was born in this hospital, and much of our own growing up was completed during the 6-year period in the 1980s when we worked for the Church of Pakistan; our subsequent careers have not let us forget these formative years. We work in an inner-city practice in Bradford and this has meant that our language and experience of the environment here in Pakistan (from which many of our patients in the UK have come) have been immensely useful, and our special interests in diabetes and womens' medicine are particularly relevant. Our ties to the UK are weakening and this time away was planned as an exploratory trip … ER -