Future of singlehanded general practices: All doctors must show that they work to acceptable standards

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7512.353-a

BMJ 2005;331:353 (6 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7512.353-a

Letter

Future of singlehanded general practices

All doctors must show that they work to acceptable standards

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

EDITOR—Singlehanded general practice and the work of singlehandersin general practice have been in the news in the recent yearsafter the events relating to the late Harold Shipman and thevarious inquiries that have resulted. That Shipman was a killeris now incontrovertible; that he was a single-handed generalpractitioner is unfortunate and continues to cast a long shadowon primary care and singlehanded general practitioners. It isalso recognised that there were failures at various stages inhis career that should have alerted the authorities much earlierthan they eventually did.

The issues raised by Majeed in his editorial on the future ofsinglehanded general practices are valid,¹ but the same needsto be said of all doctors. Isolation could, and does, happenin multidoctor practices where hierarchical practice structureand specialisation by some doctors in general practice facilitateisolation. Working in a larger organisation does . . . [Full text of this article]

N Ken Menon, general practitioner

Ongar Surgery, Ongar, Essex CM15 0HA kenmenon@aol.com