Thanks for the link
got banned.
I have to say that I think that this is an appalling article. Emotive language like "patients are dying on operating tables" (by implication, in droves), without any substantiation. I can't find Gidding's original statements on the RCS website so I can only comment on the quotes.
It is not contested that surgery in the NHS is not all that it might be and the reasons are not simple. The relentless attacks on the probity and standing of surgeons by the press and Government have had serious effects on morale, the full repercussions of which have still to be felt. That the RCS should denounce the very surgeons that it certified is a very strange abrogation of responsibility.
That surgical training is in serious trouble is indisputable, but for the RCS to fault the surgeons rather than the new training schemes which they themselves, in consultation with the GMC and the Government introduced, is disgraceful.
If, as Giddings infers (based on what evidence?), that surgeons "believe they are infallible" and "have a seriously flawed opinion of their own capabilities" then who is to blame?
Many older surgeons now feel, as I do, that the RCS no longer represents them and is pursuing some bizarre agenda of it's own that has nothing to do with either classical surgery or it's roots.
The implication that every surgical unit is a Bristol waiting to happen is bizarre, unlikely and alarmist. First of all, the facts at Bristol were complex and very far from the widespread perception of virtual homicide. Secondly, the evidence that such errors of technique and judgement are widespread is paper-thin. Quite what Gidding's purpose might be in making such an inflammatory statement is unclear.
Surgical deaths are a fact of life and aren't always someones fault. Deaths can be reduced to a very low figure, but cannot be completely eliminated, the more so since we are operating on an increasingly ageing and unfit population. The inference that surgeons are indifferent to these is fantastic. I have myself recently had an unexplained patient death and the experience is terribly distressing.
The mooted figure of 20,000 surgical deaths/year is extraordinary. Quite how the 2159 recorded by the NPSA transmogrifies into this is perplexing since all perioperative deaths must, by law, be reported. The reason given, "that only a fraction are reported" implies deception on a massive scale, for which there is precious little evidence.
The implication that Marc de Leval, a surgeon of immense experience and skill (whom I met several times when I worked at GOS) found himself incompetent is unfair and untrue. You can read a fuller story at
http://www.hospitaldoctor.net/hd_new...ection=Feature To couple this with a single anonymous anecdote about a wrong kidney removal (when did this occur?) is invidious and seeks to create the impression that fatal medical blunders are the order of the day.
Yes, wrong legs get amputated (this must be very uncommon, I'd like to hear some stats on this for the last 10 years). Yes, wrong kidneys get removed (ditto). But this is neither common not commonplace.
For an excellent review of where we are and where we have come from see
http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/5644
I'm glad I'm mostly private these days, and doubly glad that I'm not practicing in the NHS.