"Black boxing:" response by editor of Hospital Doctor

BMJ 1999;319:520 ( 21 August )

Letters

"Black boxing:" response by editor of Hospital Doctor

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ I found the BMJ's condemnation ¹ ² of the editorial in Hospital Doctor on "black boxing"³ a typically entertainingread, but I should like to correct a fewinaccuracies.

According to you, we at Hospital Doctor argued "in a portentous editorial" that the BMJ "is putting money ahead of principle."Actually, we didn't.

Our editorial expressed no view on the rights and wrongs of black boxing non-standard posts. It criticised the failure ofthe BMA to act on the democratic wishes of itsmembers.

You assert that we selected the issue of black boxing for our editorial comment because we spotted the chance of "a fast buck."Nottrue.

We selected the topic because 1998's annual representative meeting in Cardiff was a rare occasion when the membership overruledBMA Council on an issue and ordered it to implement black boxing.This year, representatives heard the council offer some rather. . . [Full text of this article]