Doctors should manage doctors

Should doctors wear white coats?

OBJECTIVE To compare the views of doctors and patients on whether doctors should wear white coats and to determine what shapes their views. METHODS A questionnaire study of 400 patients and 86 doctors was performed. RESULTS All 86 of the doctors' questionnaires were included in the analysis but only 276 of the patients were able to complete a questionnaire. Significantly more patients (56%)...

Should doctors engage with counterterrorism?

Terrorists’ tactics have changed, and security services have had to change theirs in response. We are seeing fewer highly trained extremists carrying out carefully planned attacks and more lone actions by vulnerable people incited by internet propaganda. Last month’s attacks on Westminster Bridge and in Paris bear this out. But does this mean that doctors should change how they behave? The gove...

Doctors should admit their mistakes.

"Doctors are frightened of malpractice" a comment recently made on his colleagues by a former director of the United States National Cancer Institute [1]. In Britain a remorseless increase in the number of actions against doctors by patients and their relatives and the cost of such actions has led to the government taking over responsibility for compensation for medical negligence [2]. In North...

How many doctors should Sri Lanka have?

What doctors should call their patients.

The paper discusses the moral difficulties physicians encounter when determining the level of formality they will use when addressing their patients. It is argued that physicians ought not to use a patient's first name unless the patient also uses the physician's first name. In short, physicians and patients should always address each other with the same level of formality. It is argued that th...