What is a doctor?
I know the obvious answer… someone you go to when you need fixing up.
Once upon a time it was someone you could go to, to scoop you up, and fix you up, and get you up and about, again.
Doctors spoke with authority. From the foundation of study and experience. With all the weight and mastery that the title of medical doctor has earned them.
They bring poise, dignity and seriousness, in a way that creates warmth and trust.
Regular readers will recall I have written, several times, about our family doctor, when I was growing up.
How, at ten o’clock, one Sunday evening; my Dad wrapped me in a blanket and carried me to the GP’s house. It doubled as his surgery.
The Doc opened the front door… he was in his dressing-gown.
He didn’t demur, dissemble, or delay. He examined me. Got dressed and drove us, in his car, to hospital.
I am here, telling this tale because of him…
… and tell this tale I will. Time ad-nauseam, because I am old enough to be the grandfather of most of doctors I meet and it’s important they know that if there was once, a golden era, that was probably it.
An era where politicians stood for something. Today they seem to fall for anything… and the NHS had the flush of the newborn and the optimism that comes with self-belief.
Family practice has long-since been industrialised.
You are as likely to be signposted to a Zumba class as you are to an appointment with some GPs.
I’ve come to the conclusion the trade of doctoring is not what it was. We might ask, why?
A story has surfaced, from journalist Rebecca Coombes, that might throw some light. It’s of doctors who, during Covid, misled us.
She reports;
‘…high profile doctors who have repeatedly claimed or implied that Covid-19 vaccines do not work, that the harms of these vaccines outweigh their benefits, or without evidence, that particular deaths were due to receiving the vaccine…’
It’s emerged that a group of doctors have launched a campaign to fund a legal action against their regulators, the General Medical Council, over the regulator’s alleged reluctance to;
‘… ‘investigate the misinformation spread by fellow doctors’.
The bonkers misinformation has been brought to the attention of the GMC, several times, and on each occasion the GMC have, apparently, declined to take action.
A group of doctors are now resorting to crowd-funding to take the GMC to judicial review and make them do their job.
Even the Tory party threw out their MP, Andrew Bridgen, for talking rubbish about vaccines. Ofcom have censured GBNews for airing misinformation.
The NMC threw out a registrant for speaking falsely about vaccines.
The GMC say; the ‘offending’ statements don’t reach the threshold for investigation’.
Threshold meaning; ‘there is a risk to patients or the public confidence or a serious breach of proper professional standards or conduct.’
It seems talking rubbish, spreading misinformation, misleading and telling lies doesn’t reach the threshold of risking pubic confidence…
And…
… there is the little matter of the strikes.
The GMC have a web page dealing with the tricky issue for doctors squaring their guidance on ‘Good Medical Practice’ with walking away from patients, watching 500,000 kicked off the waiting lists. With the prospect of more strikes, another 200,000 dumped.
It says;
‘… every doctor will need to consider in advance how the proposed actions will impact continuity of care for existing patients…’
The GMC claim their corporate strategy… ‘has been developed with and for patients…’
Really.
In their annual report they say…
‘Keeping patients safe and protecting public confidence in doctors is at the core of our work.’
Tell that to 700,000 patients whose clinical need got them to the front of the queue, the strikes dumped them off the list and their continuity of care is now down the toilet.
Tell that to all of us who’ve been lied to, by doctors, about vaccines, actions apparently endorsed by the GMC.
In 2021, the GMC generated income of £119.7 million, which was £11.4 million higher than 2020.
The chief executive is paid a quarter of a million pounds a year. The rest of the Board are costing doctors, who pay for all this, well over £1.5m.
What do they do?
They’re certainly not protecting the reputation of doctors and they are certainly not protecting the continuity of care for the public.
As far as I can see they are as useful as patio doors on a submarine.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
