Paul Fussell in his book on Class (in the US) made the cogent
observation that whereas a factory worker had to put up his hand to go to
the toilet a professional was in charge of the organisation of his work.
Hospital doctors have progressively lost this capacity since the Joseph
reforms and are now seen by the politicians as just a recalcitrant group
of health workers requiring close supervision to guarantee the quantity
and quality of their output.
At the same time the appropriate resources are not made available. In
three successive years as a Clinical Director I estimated the costs of
replacing obsolete Divisional equipment.It rose from £200,000 to more than
£400,000. Every year no allocation of funds was made and the replacement
funding awaited actual breakdown of the equipment.
If anyone doubted the view of the politicians it is made overt in the
proposal for "health factories", which appears in today's press.
I think that Ian Patterson and Julian Tudor Hart are largely correct
in their evaluation of the cause of the current malaise in UK doctors and
I believe it is widespread: at a Class reunion 3 years ago it appeared
that more than half of my contemporaries had retired early, and all those
I spoke to gave the present condition of the NHS as the cause.
The editorial may therefore have an imprecise title.
Rapid Response:
Medicine is no longer a profession
Paul Fussell in his book on Class (in the US) made the cogent
observation that whereas a factory worker had to put up his hand to go to
the toilet a professional was in charge of the organisation of his work.
Hospital doctors have progressively lost this capacity since the Joseph
reforms and are now seen by the politicians as just a recalcitrant group
of health workers requiring close supervision to guarantee the quantity
and quality of their output.
At the same time the appropriate resources are not made available. In
three successive years as a Clinical Director I estimated the costs of
replacing obsolete Divisional equipment.It rose from £200,000 to more than
£400,000. Every year no allocation of funds was made and the replacement
funding awaited actual breakdown of the equipment.
If anyone doubted the view of the politicians it is made overt in the
proposal for "health factories", which appears in today's press.
I think that Ian Patterson and Julian Tudor Hart are largely correct
in their evaluation of the cause of the current malaise in UK doctors and
I believe it is widespread: at a Class reunion 3 years ago it appeared
that more than half of my contemporaries had retired early, and all those
I spoke to gave the present condition of the NHS as the cause.
The editorial may therefore have an imprecise title.
Competing interests: No competing interests