This Will Only Hurt A Little!

This trenchant and expert book by an experienced doctor - who has worked both in hospitals and in general practice - advances the urgent case for an independent medical inspectorate to stop a host of avoidable errors which damage patients.Dr. Pickering trained as a hospital doctor at King's in London, then worked as a general practitioner, and latterly as a noted expert witness in British courts. For many years he has been a contributor to major medical journals, including the British Medical Journal and The Lancet. He draws on his many years of practice and on his later career as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs, to marshal both arguments and detailed evidence which support the need for major changes, to improve practice and to protect patients. To prevent many avoidable clinical errors and to enhance clinical practice he urges the establishment of a local and independent body in every region, free from the NHS 'brotherhood' of vested-interests, yet staffed by well-informed and up-to-date clinicians. These local inspectors would all investigate all clinical practices. They would do so on a regular, and normal basis. And thus help to prevent very many everyday errors which do so much damage to patients, and which are usually both costly and unremarked, and often disastrous to patients.