Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Editorial

Editorial The consequences of the Bristol heart surgery report Professionals should be trained to derive their morale (and eventually the Shipman inquiry) are likely to be from this type of relationship (as many already do); it of major importance in the next few years, and few is also the fundamental goal which the Government would doubt that the Bristol parents have broken should pursue. Professionals would then be through a barrier which has seemed impenetrable accountable every day to the most important people to others. The medical profession will have to be seen of all – the service users, however labelled. This would to change. also facilitate the exercise of professional discretion and the pursuit of innovative solutions to the problems of Doctors’ morale is currently said to be low, but a people’s daily lives. debate about accountability is unlikely in the short term to improve things for patients. In the face What now beckons may fall well short of this. of the competing interests of doctors, patients and Professionalism is easy to discredit, and is palpably democratic governance, it will naturally take mistrusted (eg as ‘a conspiracy against the laity’). government some time to come up with acceptable There will be many politicians and managers all too and workable solutions. Since most patients, when ready to look for more control, for reasons which asked, are generally satisfied with the treatment they will look plausible in the current climate. But danger receive, it would be a pity if continuing low morale lurks. If the end result is practitioners who are adversely affected care. nervous of being held to account, glad of the chance to let others be seen to carry the can, and not driven to The powerful position of doctors relative to other achieve high ideals, the real loser can only be the caring professions has been easily maintained until service user. The so-called ‘control freak’ tendencies of now, possibly partly because of the divisive ‘club recent and current ministers provide ample evidence culture’ noted by Professor Kennedy in his Bristol for concern. report. What the other professions have experienced in the last 30 years has been a weakening of their Doctors clearly have something to lose just now; authority in the face of the growing powers of, first, other professionals have lost ground to make up, politicians and then the persons they have rewarded to especially in social care. Better multi-disciplinary do their bidding, the managers. This is true in the collaboration might overcome previous divisions and classroom, the surgery, the ward, the office, wherever. also provide a helpful spin-off for all professionals. Whether these changes have proved to be of benefit to The situation cannot change for the better over night, the service user is a moot point, and is the essential and individual accountability in our complex point of this editorial. employment structures is worthy of some detailed modern analysis. But we need to steer the right Morale and professional authority are surely linked in course, and, generally speaking, professionals are some way. In a world where ordinary people can be better trained than either politicians or managers. I am better informed and are prepared to be assertive, for investing effort in them. professional authority will only come from being transparently up to date in knowledge and skills, and Peter Thistlethwaite from openness and partnership with the service user. Editor 2 Managing Community Care Volume 9 • Issue 5 • October 2001 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Integrated Care Emerald Publishing

Editorial

Thistlethwaite, Peter
Journal of Integrated Care , Volume 9 (5): 1 – Oct 1, 2001
Download PDF
1 page

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/editorial-mQ3TxfjlB0

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1476-9018
DOI
10.1108/14769018200100034
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The consequences of the Bristol heart surgery report Professionals should be trained to derive their morale (and eventually the Shipman inquiry) are likely to be from this type of relationship (as many already do); it of major importance in the next few years, and few is also the fundamental goal which the Government would doubt that the Bristol parents have broken should pursue. Professionals would then be through a barrier which has seemed impenetrable accountable every day to the most important people to others. The medical profession will have to be seen of all – the service users, however labelled. This would to change. also facilitate the exercise of professional discretion and the pursuit of innovative solutions to the problems of Doctors’ morale is currently said to be low, but a people’s daily lives. debate about accountability is unlikely in the short term to improve things for patients. In the face What now beckons may fall well short of this. of the competing interests of doctors, patients and Professionalism is easy to discredit, and is palpably democratic governance, it will naturally take mistrusted (eg as ‘a conspiracy against the laity’). government some time to come up with acceptable There will be many politicians and managers all too and workable solutions. Since most patients, when ready to look for more control, for reasons which asked, are generally satisfied with the treatment they will look plausible in the current climate. But danger receive, it would be a pity if continuing low morale lurks. If the end result is practitioners who are adversely affected care. nervous of being held to account, glad of the chance to let others be seen to carry the can, and not driven to The powerful position of doctors relative to other achieve high ideals, the real loser can only be the caring professions has been easily maintained until service user. The so-called ‘control freak’ tendencies of now, possibly partly because of the divisive ‘club recent and current ministers provide ample evidence culture’ noted by Professor Kennedy in his Bristol for concern. report. What the other professions have experienced in the last 30 years has been a weakening of their Doctors clearly have something to lose just now; authority in the face of the growing powers of, first, other professionals have lost ground to make up, politicians and then the persons they have rewarded to especially in social care. Better multi-disciplinary do their bidding, the managers. This is true in the collaboration might overcome previous divisions and classroom, the surgery, the ward, the office, wherever. also provide a helpful spin-off for all professionals. Whether these changes have proved to be of benefit to The situation cannot change for the better over night, the service user is a moot point, and is the essential and individual accountability in our complex point of this editorial. employment structures is worthy of some detailed modern analysis. But we need to steer the right Morale and professional authority are surely linked in course, and, generally speaking, professionals are some way. In a world where ordinary people can be better trained than either politicians or managers. I am better informed and are prepared to be assertive, for investing effort in them. professional authority will only come from being transparently up to date in knowledge and skills, and Peter Thistlethwaite from openness and partnership with the service user. Editor 2 Managing Community Care Volume 9 • Issue 5 • October 2001 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd

Journal

Journal of Integrated Care – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 1, 2001

There are no references for this article.