The Death of Professionalism

Our Trust has asked every doctor in the institution to sign a form stating whether they are working or not on June 21st. They will use this form to dock pay for the ones who intend to take industrial action. The default, if you do not sign the form, is that your pay will be reduced. This has quite understandably p****d a lot of people off. It did me to start with but this course of action WAS agreed with the medical staff committee and on reflection is probably quite sensible. It has been the main topic of conversation between consultants over the past few days and it was during such a conversation on the wisdom of doctors taking industrial action that a hospital colleague asked me a question that got me thinking - why on earth do we need patients to like or love us? These were his arguments to support the notion that we do not - We need car mechanics but they are not bothered whether we love them or not. We hate bankers but whether we like it or not we need the buggers. If patients want good health care, they should just accept the need for relatively well paid doctors and sod them if they don't. This may be an extreme position to take. After all, the need to be polite, truthful and nice to patients is part of being a professional. The need is now enshrined in a constitution that governs doctors and soon 'adherence' to this constitution will be used to determine whether we are fit to practice and be allowed to stay on the register. The gratitude and plaudits expressed by patients is one of the nicest things about being a doctor. It's the least one should expect from patients for whom we sacrifice quite abit of our lives and our mental health - or am I wrong ? This conversation I had with one of my colleagues has made me question this age old assumption . This elevated standing and special relationship we have or should have with our patients used to be a blessing but is fast becoming a curse. It has been codified and used to judge us AND is being used to beat us on the head - doctors are currently seen as amoral and being treated as pariahs for daring to protest about their pensions. Professionalism and the special relationship as we have known it for centuries are being used against us and their existence is being threatened. This is what makes me angry - angry at politicians and regulators for doing it and the BMA for falling into the current trap we currently find ourselves in.

Why are the BMA so bloody naive! #doctors'strike

Doctors in the UK have been balloted and on June 21st they will strike. There was a surprising (to me initially anyway) overwhelming majority for industrial action.
On second thoughts, maybe the results were not so surprising - the passing of the NHS and social care bill has radicalized many doctors and as much as the BMA might deny it, this radicalism has had an impact on the result of the pension ballot. There are many doctors, like myself, who are against taking industrial action and most I suspect, just did not bother to vote. This reluctance to vote has had the effect of making the majority of doctors appear militant.  Amazingly enough, the redoubtable Victoria Coren, a non medic tried to rationalize the reason for striking, in a very public place. 
Nonetheless, even if most of the work will be done on the day, the damage to the reputation and general good standing of doctors in the eye of the public is already done and will be long lasting. Phil Hammond is right to state that Andrew Lansley is smiling today.  You can guarantee that a child somewhere, who won't be seen on June 21st will become very ill and the Daily Mail will hear about it.

Why Doctors will never go on Strike

The air is electric  - my twitter feed is going bonkers (though not on the scale of the London riots!)  - pensions, NHS bill, doctors on strike, Lansley  - all these words just flashing by and frankly distracting me. Twitter is truly atwitter - hence the name I suppose.
Let's get real - although I am sure the majority of doctors are not happy about their pension arrangements being interfered with, most (70%) have decided to remain stum about what they plan to do about it. The situation is even less clear when it comes to the NHS reform bill. Most docs, including myself are sensible souls and would subscribe to the the idiom - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and the NHS is clearly not broke. Nonetheless nobody and I mean not even people who inhabit the higher echelons, where noses bleed,  at the department of health know what the NHS will look like if the bill goes through. Andrew Lansley and others think things will get better. So would YOU go on strike against something you don't understand?
Most of us have gone into medicine because we CARE about patients and I genuinely cannot think of anything that will anger me SO much as to change that - and the fact is everyone , Lansley and the BMA included  know that!