The ferret's guide to Tooke: Part 4

"Recommendation 18
The medical profession should have an organisation / mechanism that enables coherent advice to be offered on matters affecting the entire profession, including postgraduate medical education and training."

The BMA have certainly not been up to the task, it begs the question 'who is up to this mighty task?'.

"Recommendation 19
There should be enhanced opportunities for training in medical management during postgraduate training years to fuel an increase in clinically qualified managers and an awareness of the interdependency of clinicians and managers in the pursuit of optimal healthcare."

This is a good idea, there should be many more managers who actually understand clinical work and who have experienced life at the coalface. It is one great use of doctors who are not up to the task of clinical practice, they are likely to make much better managers than non-medically trained managers.

"Recommendation 20
Doctors in training should be better represented in the management structures of Trusts to ensure that they better understand service pressures and priorities and Trusts better appreciate their service role and training needs."

Another solid idea, doctors in training should be involved, this would promote an environment of cooperation. The management ideas are good, however there is a rather glaring omission, the issue of completely incompetent NHS managers is not addressed; maybe this is not within John Tooke's remit, even so, the general incompetence of NHS management and the way in which clinicians are ignored is something that needs to be addressed by somebody.