Epilepsy services managed by nurses. Heart failure services run by pharmacists. General practices staffed by nurses who do almost everything, save for a GP here and there. Have expensive doctors outlived our usefulness in some (or many) quarters? What happens to a patient who gets intermittent mild breathlessness and chest ache sometimes, but not always, on exertion? History, examination: a lit...

Each year surveys tell us that doctors are the most trusted UK professionals, well above journalists and politicians. Trust can be quick or slow to grow, conditional, and tentative. But trust is best when it’s experiential, laid down in aliquots of conversation, gesture, and thinking silence, and built up through repeated contact over time. A trusting relationship doesn’t mean perfection. Rathe...