In a staggering lack of conduct that hurt the profession a long held out plan for a new dedicated doctor’s union got off to a false start. This is according to those in Oxford who saw it happen as it unfolded and caused untold damage to patients and relatives in the process.
It isn’t an easy story to tell because of how much damage abuse in healthcare causes to those who experience it. It can often be worse than in other forums and formats where abuse happens. It’s also not as frequent as people imagine. It just happens where it does.
The plan was to start a union supported by science and related to everyday life in the practice of doctor’s across the UK. According to what I’ve been told its initial concept was too complicated to begin with. It involved too much data and conflicted with a natural discretion given to patients.
In an intervention the advice of senior practitioners was to keep it simple so it wouldn’t harm the interests of patients. It wouldn’t fit their job even if it fitted a perception of how to start a union. It led to a lot of arguing with disagreements and fallings out afterwards. Those who were there remember it as acrimonious.