According to a recent poll of radio listeners, doctors are the most respected profession in the United Kingdom. The least respected are MPs, estate agents, government ministers, lawyers, and—fifth from bottom—journalists.
Doctors are not ones to gloat or to advise those 12 000 Today listeners to get a life. Instead, our hearts go out to the poor journalists, who have put so much effort into advising everyone else how to do their jobs that they have neglected themselves. Time for them to benefit from our wisdom, for a change. Here is a quick 'n' easy, cut-out-and-keep guide to earning respect.
Think substance, not spin. When doctors went through a tough time image-wise, we didn't hire Max Clifford. We took a hard look at ourselves and changed the bits that weren't right. Like, if I may say so, the arrogance.
Respect the public. Medicine now has lay people on most major committees and we listen to them, as well as to individual patients. Journalists, however, treat the public like children. The contrast between a television journalist talking off camera and on camera has to be heard to be believed.
Don't talk yourselves down. We've realised that if you say, “I'm only a simple surgeon” often enough, people believe it. Journalists have called themselves “hacks” for so long that they believe it themselves.
Teach your juniors respect. Treating patients as equals is now at the core of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. By contrast, trainee journalists are told that the public has a reading age of 8 and the attention span of a hypomanic gnat. Medicine has smartened up while the media have dumbed down.
Provide a consultant based service. The NHS is moving away from dependence on trainees. But when doctors are interviewed for newspapers or news programmes, it is usually by people half their age. They are charming, yes, but perceptive? No.
Believe in something. People sense that most of us in the NHS—doctors, nurses, secretaries—stay with it because we believe in it. Legendary journalists covered their idealism with a veneer of cynicism, but their successors have copied the wrong layer. They should try being like us. The public respects sincerity.