Abstract
Raymond Tallis is Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester and one of medicine's true polymaths. He is a distinguished creative writer, essayist and philosopher, recognized by the award of at least two honorary doctorates in literature.
His book, Hippocratic oaths, was written upon his retirement as a clinical academic from the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Professor Tallis focuses primarily on the hospital sector, where he has toiled for more than 30 years as a specialist physician and academic.
Hippocratic oaths maps the influences of societal movements, such as consumerism; litigation and legalism; challenges to professionalism from post-modernism; media based on a ‘culture of contempt’; and managerialism, among other factors, on institutional health care. He also comments upon the erosion of the principles and practice of the profession of medicine by these factors. Professor Tallis’ conclusions in relation to the NHS are deeply disturbing.
In the current environment in Australia, with political discourse turning to added levels of administration and ongoing funding stoushes, perhaps Tallis’ words are the writing on the wall of the future of institutional care. He writes of the regular re-disorganizations of health care through recent years in the UK as administrative changes, due to political pressures, have taken on a life cycle of their own.
This is a book that every practising doctor should read. Although it is more relevant to specialists, it will also give general practitioners an insight into the travails of modern institutional health care.
To see Hippocratic oaths’ vision played out as deeply dark satire, verging on horror, I suggest watching the television series from the BBC, Bodies, based upon Jed Mercurio's book of the same name.