Docs aren’t right about everything

I’VE checked the Bible. I’ve looked up the Norseman’s Guide to Valhalla. I’ve scrutinised the Mount Olympus Gazette.

But nowhere do I find mention of any god being a member of the British Medical Association.

And I think we should bear this in mind when we see doctors wielding placards and picketing their hospitals.

Many doctors believe themselves to be divinely inspired. Many consultants believe themselves to be divinely appointed. Many members of the public are happy to go along with this, accepting that doctors are saints and nurses their ministering angels.

And yes, doctors do train for a long time and they do work long hours, often under difficult conditions. But then, so do lots of people.

Agreed, when doctors do their job well, or even just properly, they save lives. But forgive me, isn’t that what they’re trained, and paid, to do?

It does not mean that they know how to run a health service. Many of them couldn’t run a Christmas club, which is why GP surgeries have practice managers.

And please don’t tell me they all have a vocation to help the

Doctors aren’t perfect – they’re only human

needy. All those junior doctors chanting, “Save the NHS” – if the government won’t give them what they want, their answer is that they’ll have no alternative but to go to Australia where the pay and conditions are better.

And where will that leave all the needy NHS patients they’re apparently so concerned about?

It’s worth remembering that the BMA opposed the creation of the NHS in the first place and GPs only signed up to it at the last minute.

Consultants only went along with it when Nye Bevan “stuffed their mouths with gold” and let them practise privately too.

Of course most doctors do their jobs conscientiously, as do millions of non-doctors, who aren’t always able to manage a round of golf in the afternoon.

And like all families, mine has reason to be grateful to doctors. But not all of them.

When our baby son developed meningitis our GP said it was a bug. It was the emergency doctor who admitted him to hospital, narrowly saving his life.

Like the NHS, doctors aren’t perfect. They’re only human. They’re not always right. And they’re not always in the right.