Doctors should be competent, curious, and not unkind

Doctors need to be competent and curious. They must not be unkind. But to stipulate “kindness” as a core attribute is a dangerous precedent, especially as kindness is so subjective and an increasingly weaponised concept.As McCartney points out, the job of a doctor is “not necessarily to be kind, liked, popular, or nice. It is, sometimes, to disagree, to challenge, to object, and, at times, to refuse.”1 Doctors will be increasingly put at risk of complaints or even referrals to the General Medical Council.An additional worry is that, on the road to de-professionalisation that is being brought about by the rise of “competencies,” we will have to waste more and more resources, time, and money in proving yet another spurious competency.
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