Published 21 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1577
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1577

Feature

This House believes doctors are neglecting their duty to lead health service change: Opposer

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1555doi:10.1136/bmj.b1578doi:10.1136/bmj.b1572doi:10.1136/bmj.b1573

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

Doctors have never neglected their duty and have, throughout history, led health service change. It is fanciful to suggest otherwise. Our major teaching hospitals and the specialty of general practice owe their existence to doctors of a different age leading transformational change in service delivery. More recently doctors have shown this ability to lead at the highest levels, championing the calls for bans on smoking, landmines, and torture among other issues.

Successive organisational changes within the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s—particularly the 1983 Griffiths report, which essentially introduced the idea of general management into the NHS—have, however, marginalised doctors from their role in management and have adversely affected their ability to lead healthcare change.

The NHS has only recently recognised that it is essential that doctors are involved in leadership. Lord Ara Darzi’s next stage review¹ last year demonstrated the enthusiasm of clinicians from all backgrounds to be involved . . . [Full text of this article]

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