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I felt, derision. After all, what would I know colleague (at the time I was the regional lead Although I had studied art, literature,
Im a mere patient. for quality improvement), I knew of Phylliss and philosophy, although I had the gift of
It got to the point where I would see my reputation for searching to extend the tech- tongues and of clear thinking, if not of clair-
general practitioner only if I had a fair idea nical quality of care and also of her gifts as voyance, I found that the benison of charity,
of what was going on. If I were concerned or writer, dramatist, and director. Phyllis also of the milk of human kindness, was leaking
worried Id return home and see my real had her flaws. But it was her capacity for out of my soul, squeezed out by the
general practitioner as a temporary resident. equality and sensitivity of relationshipand pressures of work, of financial anxiety, of a
So why was one general practitioner at the same time holding her professional wife and five children to care for and keep
wonderful and the other not? boundaries and standardsthat made her happy, of nights broken by the cries of my
My real general practitioner became my such an exceptionally good doctor. own children or the urgent clinical needs of
expert best friend. He took an interest in me She relished the chance to find creative others, of committee work and administra-
as a person and not as a set of symptoms. He ways of communicating just as well with the tive responsibilities. I became less patient
knew when to speak and, more importantly, patient from a severely deprived back- with my patients, less tolerant of the foibles
when to shut up. My history was my history, ground as with the educated patient. Phylliss of the human race, less willing to listen, less
not his questions with his answers. I felt consultations were of a dramatically higher able to care.
empowered and never bullied into taking a standard than most I have witnessed over Once I retired, however, things changed
course of action that I didnt want to follow. the years and uniquely tailored to the again. Suddenly my financial worries were
He seemed to realise that I might be better patient in front of her. over. I had savings instead of debts. Most of
placed to make suggestions about what was There is no such thing as the perfect doc- my children had left the nest. I had time
going on. My experiences lead me to make tor. The good doctor is not one type or one once more. Doing locum consultant work
the following as a summary of a good thing. He or she is good enough in the here and there when I felt inclined had all
consultation. Winnicottian sensesomeone who is truly the pleasures and little of the pain of full
The doctor asks questions; patients give mindful of her or his own limitations and the time consultant work. No committee meet-
answers. The doctor uses his or her professions limitations. The good doctor has ings, virtually no administrative duties. Just
knowledge and skills to help patients make a high tolerance for not knowingan ability ward rounds, outpatient clinics, teaching,
sense of their answers; patients ultimately to suspend judgment and work with situa- and on-call duties every three or four nights.
decide what they want to do with their doc- tions of high intractability. He or she is always The outpatient clinics were generally less
tors support. My unhappiness arose when searching for, moving towards, and finding heavily booked than I had been used to. I
the doctor filled in her own answers. creative solutions in the moment at hand, could sit back and listen to patients and their
Louise Ward patient able to hold both hope and failure simultane- parents, could put myself entirely at their
LouiseWard36@hotmail.com ously, being different things to different disposal. It made a tremendous difference.
patients and thereby meeting myriad needs. If I had my time again, would I do it any
Eulogy for a good doctor Can you imagine a world where more differently? Im not sure. I hope I would
clinicians, like Phyllis, were able to transform worry less. I hope I would be more patient,
EditorIn June this year I went to the
their inherent handicaps into increased with the patients and with myself. But nowa-
memorial service for an exceptionally good
effectiveness? That would mean powerful days it would be all different. Whereas in my
doctor, Phyllis Mortimer. I had been both a
medicine indeed. first preregistration job I was on call for 108
colleague and a patient of hers some years
Valerie James fellow in leadership development hours a week, nowadays I might at worst be
ago. An inimitable woman (one of three
Kings Fund, London W1G 0AN on for 80 hours. In all my 30 years from
women in her year of 150 medical students), V.James@kingsfund.org.uk qualification to retirement, except when I
she had graduated despite having polio as
was in the United States, I was always on a
an undergraduate and myriad health prob-
Now I am retired . . . one in two rota. Nowadays as a consultant, I
lems that continued all her life.
would be on a one in four rota at worst.
Perhaps this explained something of the EditorWhat is a good doctor? How do we
Would that make it easier to love ones
compassion she had for her patients and her make one? Now I am retired I know how to
patients? I sincerely hope so.
sheer humanity. Jungians speak of the be a good doctor. I know how to listen to a
concept of the wounded healer: that patient. I know how to put myself at the Peter McMullin retired consultant paediatrician
Winchelsea TN36 4EN
clinicians must be aware of their own patients disposal. Put down your pen. Turn Peter.McMullin@care4free.net
woundedness so patients can find the health away from your desk. Face the patient. Sit
in themselves. The relationship between the back. Give him or her your full attention.
two of them becomes in itself a creative Only thus will you fully understand the Teach medical students reality to make
medium unique to that encounter. The pro- problem. good doctors
tocol is a necessary, but enormously limited, Before I took up medicine I knew what EditorTo make a good doctor we need
tool, which provides only the beginnings of made a good doctor. I was a mature student. medical schools to be honest with students
good care. Real evidence based practice is Furthermore, I had had extensive experi- and teach them about how things really are.
fluid, ever changing and continually revis- ence of being a patient. I had often had We need to provide medical students with
able specific knowledge. Some of the neces- blood taken through an old fashioned, reus- that most powerful and dangerous of life
sary knowledge is that which is created in able needle, had had barium meals, sig- forcesreality.
the consulting room itself. moidoscopies, nasogastric feeding, intra- Some patients can be difficult and
My husband and I had treatment for venous drips, and more than one operation dangerous. Most clinical decisions have no
subfertility for about five years with several under general anaesthesia. I knew what a evidence base. Pursuing ethical aspects of
clinicians. Phyllis cared for me through good doctor and a good nurse were like. each case is an activity that needs prohibi-
many months of it. With her, unlike others, Once I was qualified things were rather tively intense resources. Uncertainty looms
the unpleasant procedure was no more different. Although I was still full of youthful over all of medicine, and you must be able to
invasive than if she were looking in my ear. idealism, I became less inclined to sit and lis- cope with the pain and guilt that it brings.
This was due to her gentle physical handling ten. I seldom had the chance to sit at all. Still, We teach students about a cosy, idealised
of me (despite her own handicap with hand I loved the work, and, on the whole, I loved medical environment that really exists in the
and arm) but especially because of her inter- the patients. I still felt compassion and fellow minds of the academics. When students
personal skills, which were nothing short of feeling for them. But as time went by, things experience the real world they do not see the
extraordinary. She was also the only changed. For one thing I was perpetually majority of doctors spending a vast amount
clinician we encountered who was able to aware of times winged chariot hurrying of time discussing ethics with patients. They
work (and work well) with the continual dis- near and most of the time it seemed to be find the evidence base to be sorely deficient.
appointment of treatment failure. As her accompanied by the hound of heaven. They soon realise that many serious illnesses
can present with minimal signs and symp- involved, belong in the past. Count every- Secondly, to be a good doctor, you first
toms, and they must somehow devise a thing and value nothing. have to be a good human being: a good
personal way of coping with the pain and Not. spouse, a good colleague, a good customer at
guilt that this uncertainty produces. Malcolm R Macleod specialist registrar in neurology the supermarket, a good driver on the road.
I believe that we harm our medical Western General Hospital, Edinburgh UK Thirdly, its easier to be a good doctor if
students by not being honest about the real EH4 2XU you like people and genuinely want to help
malcolm@apoptosis.freeserve.co.uk
medical environment in which they will them. A general practitioner from Wolver-
eventually practise. We need to give them hampton wrote: To like other people, from
the skills to help them make their patients this all else follows. Liking your patients will
healthy but we also need to give them the get you through the grind and tedium of
skills to help them remain healthy them- your working day, and patient contact will be
selves. Placing students in a real medical a source of strength and renewal. You may
environment with deficient skills simply even do some good.
confuses and alienates them and ends up Finally, good doctors, unlike good
damaging everyone. If we want to make engineers, good accountants, or good
good doctors then we must teach them in firemen, are not just better than average at
the real world. their job. They are special in some other way
too. Extra dedicated, extra humane, or extra
Colin Guthrie general practitioner
1448 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G14 9DW selfless. More traditional contributors
(grey_triker@hotmail.com) wanted doctors to sacrifice themselves for
the good of their patients. Others said
doctors must look after themselves firstor
How not to do it they wouldnt be able to help anyone.
EditorFirst of all, take raw medical Doctors are patients too.
graduates and place them in a busy medical Few respondents had anything to say
unit. Write a job description that details their about what makes a good doctor in special-
rest periods but not their role, their tasks but ties with little patient contact. Pathology, for
not their contribution. Make them work with Summary of responses example, or epidemiology. There wasnt
an ever changing variety of senior much either on what makes a good surgeon.
EditorAltogether 102 people wrote in
colleaguesnot for them an old fashioned One of only eight contributing surgeons (a
response to our questions what makes a
apprenticeship. Ensure that they never see urologist from Saudi Arabia) wrote that
good doctor? and how can we make one?1
the same patient twice because compliance good surgeons are good doctors with
They were clearer on the first question than
with hours is more important than the extras. Another surgeon said that it was
the second, listing more than 70 qualities a
insights they gain from providing continuity important for doctors to find medicine fun,
good doctor should have. Among the
of care. fascinating, and stimulating.
usualcompassion, understanding, empa-
As they move into specialist training, Making a good doctor seemed a greater
thy, honesty, competence, commitment,
require them to collect and collate precise challenge than defining one. There was gen-
humanitywere the less predictable: cour-
details of everything except the quality of eral agreement, though, that we arent very
age, creativity, a sense of justice, respect,
doctoring they are learning to provide. good at it. To paraphrase 13 responses: all
optimism, grace.
Teach them that they too can profit from the we can hope to do is select students with the
Responses came in from 24 countries all
drug industry through its necessary supple- right gifts (not the right exam results) and
over the world, and almost all of the
mentation of study leave budgets. Make sure somehow stop them from going rotten
respondents had something different to say,
that resources in your institution go where through overload cynicism and neglect dur-
indicating, as one respondent put it, that a
they are really neededthe only computer ing their training and early career.
good doctor will be different things to differ-
doctors need is between their ears. One first year intern from Israel echoed
ent people at different times. For some, the
When the time comes for research, use several others when she suggested bad soci-
notion was very simple: a doctor who
this opportunity to reinforce the importance eties were unlikely to produce good doctors:
satisfies his or her patients; a doctor you
of numerous competing regulatory frame- Whilst doctors are overworked, underpaid,
would trust yourself; a doctor who likes
works in providing the bureaucratic frame- and abused, the debate on defining a good
people and likes the job; even a doctor who
work essential to employment in NHS doctor will remain academic, she wrote.
feels for himself the sorrow of human kind.
management and its support industries, and Our society undervalues doctors yet
For others, it was more difficult. Like
to deforestation. expects and will accept nothing short of per-
describing a good car, a good play, or good
As with all healthcare providers, ensure fection . . . Even with perfect risk manage-
weather it all depends on your perspective.
that their salary, once trained, is sufficiently ment mistakes will be made . . . people will
A member of the library faculty at a New
modest to attract only those who are (or die young or decline with age, and not all
York university described a good doctor as
should be) committed. pregnancies will have a good outcome.
one who reads and reads and reads. A pro-
When issues of professional practice Unfortunately doctors are more easily sued
fessor of bioethics (with an interest in medi-
arise, it is better to get someone who isnt than God, and moreover . . . pay cash.
cal history) argued that good doctors are
involved in providing health care to take it on also good historians, adding that medical Alison Tonks freelance medical journalist
Bristol
they arent constrained by their understand- history should take up at least a quarter of
ing of the system they have been asked to the undergraduate curriculum. Educators
1 Theme issue: What is a good doctor and how can we make
change, and the system will cope with all the gave a high priority to being a good teacher, one? bmj.com 2002. bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/
rogue recommendationswe always have. coach, and mentor. And a quality improve- 7353/DC1 (accessed 31 July 2002).
The fundamental principle underlying ment specialist thought a good doctor was
this approach is attention to detail. If we col- one who critically examined what he or she
lect all information available, write detailed did and tried to improve on it.
job plans, and provide coherent written jus- Patients, however, wanted little more
tifications for everything, then all will be well. than a doctor who listened to them.
Good doctoring is nothing more than the From this great diversity a few common
sum of these individual parts, and those who themes emerged.
argue that there is some higher value system, Firstly, there are plenty of good doctors Correspondence submitted electronically
some professionalism which should be around and we should nurture them better. is available on our website