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The reason why the present government ignores calls for adequate funding and feels it can carry on as before -or worse now with STPs- is because they realise that this sense of vocation will keep senior doctors going. They see doctors work harder and harder trying to cope with an impossible workload.
Isn’t it time for senior doctors to stage a protest in order to maintain patient safety?
In the early '70s junior doctors in Brooklyn found their workload excessive, and management unsympathetic and resistant to employing more doctors. The doctors decided to take action by omitting completion of the 'Diagnosis' box in the notes while caring for patients as before. Since clerical staff billed the patient by diagnosis, their action upset the institution's cash flow and had the desired effect.The doctors had obtained legal advice and maintained that patient care came first and argued that their action released time for patient care.
Vocation definitively but in todays NHS having the mental resilience to work in a chronically underfunded service and taking the blame must rate highly. " If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you", I'm not sure how to select medical students on this criteria though.
Re: Margaret McCartney: Vocation, vocation, vocation
The reason why the present government ignores calls for adequate funding and feels it can carry on as before -or worse now with STPs- is because they realise that this sense of vocation will keep senior doctors going. They see doctors work harder and harder trying to cope with an impossible workload.
Isn’t it time for senior doctors to stage a protest in order to maintain patient safety?
In the early '70s junior doctors in Brooklyn found their workload excessive, and management unsympathetic and resistant to employing more doctors. The doctors decided to take action by omitting completion of the 'Diagnosis' box in the notes while caring for patients as before. Since clerical staff billed the patient by diagnosis, their action upset the institution's cash flow and had the desired effect.The doctors had obtained legal advice and maintained that patient care came first and argued that their action released time for patient care.
Competing interests: No competing interests