Doctors’ dilemma unsolved

This is a brilliant tract against the times. Tallis records how the traditional vocation in medicine is ceasing to be renewed. What he says has a wider application to all professions and, indeed, to work generally. How can Britain sit casually by as a profession which, under oath, brings a lifetime of learning and dedication to our care is replaced by the highly paid medical salesman? Tallis locates a number of destructive forces at work.

Changes in the practice of medicine reflect changes in the wider society. The idea of vocation is increasingly no longer strong enough to determine what role people wish to play in life. A number now training as doctors may never practise, or, if they do, it will be for only a short period. This is a finding which would have been unimaginable 30 years ago. Being a doctor, and where to practise, is less a vocation and more a lifestyle choice.