Free speech punished by senior "National Health" doctors

Britain's socialized medicine system -- the NHS -- is just another nasty bureaucracy. It must not be criticized by its employees:

"A junior doctor made a rude comment on a doctors' only forum about one of the top bananas who masterminded the plan to 'improve' doctors' training and 'career paths'. 'Modernising Medical Careers', as it's called, is very widely disliked. Its benefits seem to be mostly for employers and the government - not doctors or patients.

Our Dr Scot Jnr, who works in a Highlands hospital, made some forthright comments (which included some 'Anglo-Saxon' words) about one of the MMC architects who is a career medical politician.

He was immediately suspended from work: a high-powered London close friend of the top banana architect had seen the comment and called another chum, another big tamale medical woman, up in the Highlands. A plot - allegedly unlawful - was hatched between them, Chinese-whisperish, to silence and punish Dr Scot Jnr forthwith.

This summary activity has deep implications for the freedom of doctors to speak out against diktats they don't agree with, and it demonstrates how bullied and harassed clinical staff are. One in four junior doctors report being bullied and intimidated by senior doctors (figure from BMA report). Ultimately it has deep implications for the quality of care and treatment doctors are allowed to give patients.

Fundamentally, this silencing and intimidatory activity is an onslaught on freedom of speech for all of us. In the NHS particularly, this toxic culture is so deeply entrenched that it goes barely noticed by most, it's part of the environment like targets or management suite shagpile. This hidden culture of intimidation and fear is also the reason that so many patients are not able to get the treatment they need or the apologies they deserve when things go wrong.

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