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I am afraid that the modern NHS is not isolated in suffering from some moral affliction, but rather reflects the prevailing society from which it draws its workers and its patients.
The failure of nurses and doctors to demonstrate compassion or to simply spend time with patients and families is mirrored by patients and relatives who feel it's ok to lie or be abusive or manipulative to get what they want. It's two sides of the same coin.
Compulsory reading of some new politically correct 'form' of the Hippocratic oath strikes me as a solution that skips off the surface. You could say the idea itself implies a pluralist confusion of which virtues matter (or more accurately concedes a will-full forgetfulness; I mean who thought compassion was a part of medicine?).
Our individualistic culture values personal ambition over duty and service, and naturally ends in narcissism. Perhaps a sense of our connectedness and interdependence would only return with a crisis of poverty or war or with a religious revival. Perhaps we need to learn again what it is to wash our fellow man's feet.
Re: The NHS could learn much from Gandhi’s teaching
I am afraid that the modern NHS is not isolated in suffering from some moral affliction, but rather reflects the prevailing society from which it draws its workers and its patients.
The failure of nurses and doctors to demonstrate compassion or to simply spend time with patients and families is mirrored by patients and relatives who feel it's ok to lie or be abusive or manipulative to get what they want. It's two sides of the same coin.
Compulsory reading of some new politically correct 'form' of the Hippocratic oath strikes me as a solution that skips off the surface. You could say the idea itself implies a pluralist confusion of which virtues matter (or more accurately concedes a will-full forgetfulness; I mean who thought compassion was a part of medicine?).
Our individualistic culture values personal ambition over duty and service, and naturally ends in narcissism. Perhaps a sense of our connectedness and interdependence would only return with a crisis of poverty or war or with a religious revival. Perhaps we need to learn again what it is to wash our fellow man's feet.
Competing interests: No competing interests