Medical school “banter” denigrating GPs and psychiatrists must stop, say college heads

Two of the UK’s most senior doctors have called for an end to the damaging “banter” in medical schools, which they claim is dissuading students from applying to general practice and psychiatry.

Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of general practitioners, and Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said that “the systematic denigration” of their specialties was putting patient safety at risk by contributing to a shortfall of GPs across the country and was stifling efforts to achieve parity of esteem between physical and mental health.

In a joint editorial in the British Journal of General Practice,1 …