Over-specialization in medical care

Health care specialists may not be sufficiently trained to refer patients to general medical practitioners because they cannot readily recognize pathology in other parts of the body. They may also choose to ignore it as not being their concern. A patient's family physician is generally unknown to those specialists, such as dentists, opticians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, kinestherapists, psychologists or psychiatrists, who can be directly contacted by patients; and there is normally no contact between them, so the patient's medical history is also unknown. Some treatments, medicines and anaesthetics may be contra-indicated when the patient's health is already affected by heart condition, epilepsy, contagious diseases or a number of other ailments.