The author has highlighted some interesting issues regarding the current practice of medicine.

What I would like to add is that with the current economic and time restraints faced by practising healthcare workers, it is becoming increasingly difficult for doctors to spend enough time with patients in order to develop a congenial patient-doctor relationship, be "interested in patients as people", and generally be a "good doctor".

Rather than bleakly demarcating between "good" and "bad" medicine, and differentiating between "good" and "bad" doctors, perhaps we should focus on the current system, which makes "good doctors" pratice "bad medicine"?

Competing interests: None declared