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Time for humanity from doctors towards patients

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Peter Nolan
Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Staffordshire University and South Staffs Healthcare Trust, Blackheath Lane, Staffordshire ST18 0AD, UK; peter.nolan@staffs.ac.uk

Keywords: doctor-patient communication; humanity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It would not be difficult to support the claim that medical achievements during the 20th century rank as high, if not higher, than those in any other field of human endeavour.¹ Doctors have played a significant part in delivering the findings of science to patients in a variety of health care settings. Yet, the climate today in medicine and health care is not an optimistic one; indeed, it may never have been so gloomy. We are living in an era of frequent public inquiries into health professionals’ conduct, sensational headlines about failed, inadequate or unethical care, constant surveillance of performance and outcomes, concerns about NHS funding, and growing criticism from user groups and patients. Criticism of the effectiveness and cost of the biomedical model has been growing for at least three decades. Some would say that medicine’s efficacy has been overstated and that improvements in health have been . . . [Full text of this article]

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