BMJ  2003;326:1213 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1213-c

Letter

Doctors and managers

Capacity and funding need to be increased

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

EDITOR—It would be useful for doctors and managers to behave at times of pressure more reasonably towards one another and to try to appreciate and understand the other group's perspective of a problem.1 However, finding a solution to why doctors and managers have been in disagreement for around 50 years perhaps is addressing the wrong problem.2

There is a greater communication and misunderstanding problem between health services and the public than there is between doctors and managers. This imposes the greatest pressure on the NHS. Better, repeated, honest, and open public education by doctors and managers about the abilities and limitations of the NHS in its present form is required so as to counter public misperceptions and expectations fuelled by the Department of Health and the media. Fulfilling realistic public expectations will only happen once increases in capacity and funding have made more of an impact on a . . . [Full text of this article]

Nigel Dudley, consultant in elderly medicine

St James's University Hospital, Leeds LS9 7TF nigel.dudley@leedsth.nhs.uk


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Relevant Article

Doctors and managers: a problem without a solution?
Nigel Edwards, Martin Marshall, Alastair McLellan, and Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2003 326: 609-610. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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