26 October 2007
British medicine "leaderless"
British medicine is blighted by “self-interested, ineffective, squabbling” bodies incapable of providing the leadership it so desperately needs.
Writing in this month’s edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Richard Smith, former editor of the BMJ , argues that the “wreckage” left by MTAS* and MMC*, is a result of the lack of “coherent, strategic, high level leadership”.
A body which could provide leadership for the whole profession would necessarily require the existing professional groups to surrender some of their independence – which Dr Smith recognises will not be a popular option. “But,” he argues, “none of the existing organisations is up to the task – as the MTAS disaster illustrates.”
He suggests that the BMA’s views are regularly discounted because it is “a self-interested trade union.” Furthermore, many of the royal colleges are “politically naive, poor, and incapable of strategic thought”, the Academy of Royal Colleges is “dysfunctional” and the GMC “rightly belongs to patients and not doctors and is regulated by an Act of Parliament.”
The inquiry into MMC led by Sir John Tooke, also concluded that the medical profession needs an independent body to provide effective leadership. It dismissed the idea that the problems were all the fault of the government and instead made clear that many medical organisations were to blame. These often had conflicting views and concerns which frequently reflected self-interest rather than the interests of medicine and medical care as a whole. “This,” says Dr Smith, “is the result of having loads of bodies and loads of leaders…but no leadership. Doctors are hopeless at leadership and followership. They tend to create unleadable bodies and then vote in compromise candidates to lead them."
Dr Smith concludes: “If medicine doesn't want to follow teaching into being a low status profession it desperately needs to reform its leadership.”
[ends]
British medicine’s desperate need for leadership [PDF 23k]
Note to editors
*MMC = Modernising Medical Careers *MTAS = Medical Training Application Service.
“British medicine’s desperate need for leadership” is published in the November issue (Vol.100) of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
JRSM is the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. It has full editorial independence of the RSM. It has been published continuously since 1809. Its Editor is Dr Kamran Abbasi.
The article is available free at www.jrsm.org.
Dr Richard Smith is available for comment. The inquiry into MMC led by Sir John Tooke, concluded that the medical profession needs an independent body to provide effective leadership. It dismissed the idea that the problems were all the fault of the government and instead made clear that many medical organisations were to blame. These often had conflicting views and concerns which frequently reflected self-interest rather than the interests of medicine and medical care as a whole. “This,” says Dr Smith, “is the result of having loads of bodies and loads of leaders…but no leadership. Doctors are hopeless at leadership and followership. They tend to create unleadable bodies and then vote in compromise candidates to lead them."
Dr Richard Smith is a former editor of the BMJ and is executive director of the Ovations initiative to counter chronic disease in the developing world. He is also a visiting professor at the London School of Tropical Medicine and a member of the governing council of St George’s, University of London.
