Letters

"Black boxing:" response by editor of Hospital Doctor

EDITORI found the BMJ's condemnation ^{1 2} of the editorial in Hospital Doctor on "black boxing"³ a typically entertaining read, but I should like to correct a few inaccuracies.

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 of the BMA to act on the democratic wishes of its members.

You assert that we selected the issue of black boxing for our editorial comment because we spotted the chance of "a fast buck." Not true.

We selected the topic because 1998's annual representative meeting in Cardiff was a rare occasion when the membership overruled BMA Council on an issue and ordered it to implement black boxing. This year, representatives heard the council offer some rather unconvincing arguments about why it would have been impractical to do what it had been told. For the second year running, the representatives at the meeting disagreed with council on the issue and passed a motion deploring the failure to follow the membership's clear directions. This refusal to follow the explicit instructions of the people whose subscriptions fund the BMAand who also happen to be our readerswas an entirely legitimate subject for us to comment on.

Perhaps I could raise two further points.

Firstly, Hospital Doctor is the leading weekly newspaper for hospital doctors, so of course it would carry a story on a "small earthquake in Penge,"² but only if doctors were affected in a professional capacity. I challenge you to find a news story in Hospital Doctor in which there were "no doctors involved."

Secondly, Hospital Doctor may indeed be a "throwaway newspaper," but I'm delighted to say that it is printed on recycled newsprint and around 70% of consultants read it every week en route to the waste paper bin.

Which leaves us with your question of whether the BMJ is "putting money ahead of principle." You may say that; I could not possibly comment.

Phil Johnson, editor. 
Hospital Doctor, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS

^a Competing interests: Hospital Doctor is a rival to the BMJ for recruitment advertising.