Ouch!

Next time you have to undergo hospital treatment of any kind, it's probably worth bearing in mind that rather a lot of our medical practitioners are becoming somewhat disillusioned.

It's no secret that most people expect the New Labour mob to be thrown out on their collective ears next election, and even less of a secret that most people aren't really looking forward to what might replace them, given that DC is a bland facsimile of Tony Blair and seems intent on steering his party firmly along the centreline of British politics.  In fact, only Vince Cable seems to have any cross-party respect at all.  So when we see that Doctors are not happy bunnies, we need to look further than simply the current political scene to see why.

They've been telling us - and we know - that the NHS is hiring far more managers and administrators than Doctors, and the EWTD (European working time directive) is going to cause a lot of problems in the training stages. But there's a more serious problem, and one which directly affects each one of us.

In times past, the medical fraternity were seen a little like gods;  their pronouncements were accepted as manna by the legions of the afflicted, and their status in the community was high.  This inevitably led to the creation of a group who believed their own hype, who were generally rather overbearing and arrogant, and who maintained a healthy distance from mere mortals, many of whom were almost certainly attempting to spread their communicable diseases to the Doctors. The stark separation between the different classes of Nurse, and nurses and Doctors was maintained at all costs and (this is the important bit) the medical profession had total control over both training and patient care.

What's concerning many of them at the moment is that both these aspects are being eroded;  the continual imposition of 'targets', the conversion of 'patients' to 'customers' and the increasing levels of expectation, coupled with government policies interfering more and more in training, assessment, and even medical outcomes is leaving many senior consultants feeling vulnerable, emasculated and worried that the UK's medical standards are slipping.  And there's some evidence that their concerns are based in fact. Only this last summer a Government spokesman was suggesting that youngsters with low academic qualifications could be eased into medical schools as a way of enabling the less academically endowed to become doctors.

As we've noted on here only the other day, Medicine is essentially a memory test plus the ability to know how to apply that knowledge.  And whilst it's highly commendable to think we could help the less able to become Doctors, I, personally, would prefer the person making life or death decisions on my behalf to have come top in every class they ever took.    Perhaps the wheel has turned a little too far, and we now need to give back some control to the medical professions.