In the-dialectic of East Germany, even such standard, worldwide complaints as tuberculosis, tumors and venereal infections are dubbed "people's diseases." Now, for their control and cure, the Communist Health Ministry is readying a remedy that may be worse than the diseases themselves: "people's doctors," who are getting a quadruple-quick training course of no more than a year.
The training began last month in three centers—at Dresden, at Quedlinburg and near Pinnow on the Baltic—with about 500 students. (The ministry aimed for an enrollment of 1,000, but recruiting flopped.) Each student has been passed by an examining board which includes two doctors but...