The danger of putting too much trust in doctors
We need the medical profession. It reassures us. When we’re ill, it either cures us or numbs our pain. Unfortunately, our reliance on health care can lead us to look at medical professionals through rose-tinted spectacles.
As with society at large, the medical profession mixes the good, the bad and the ugly. Occasionally, the profession throws up a monster, as with Dr. Harold Shipman, an English general practitioner who murdered at least 200 people.
The fact that for so long Shipman’s murders went undetected suggests there may be something wrong with the culture of the profession. Is it too deferential? Are medical professionals too trusting of colleagues? Has a club-like mentality replaced methodical skepticism as the dominant professional more?
The profession can be defensive when challenged. In 2016, one manager in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) told The Guardian newspaper that, when criticized, “The organization becomes defensive and takes the corporate line to protect themselves from a legal challenge and puts it down to your perception. You are then managed out of your job through contrived actions.”