Textbook

"We should write our own textbook for local students," the man from Pluto so declared.

I am not aware of the possibility that we are practising a very different kind of medicine from the rest of the (western) world. Disease pattern may be slightly different here, but that should be adequately dealt with by a few tutorials and seminar hand-outs.

The same thing happens for treatment guideline - for all clinical conditions, you name it. The Hospital Authority has its guideline. The Society, of whatever specialty, has its own - often written by the same group of people as the HA one but somehow the recommendations are slightly different. (If the subject touches on more than one specialty, each society involved would of course have its own commandments.) The Cluster put up another one. The department put up yet another ... good lord.

I come to realize that guidelines are not there to guide your practice. It serves, however, a few nondescript purposes:

1. We (the board or council) exist.
2. (Since we get funding to improve the service,) we have done some work.
3. We are independent and we think independently. Therefore we will not blindly follow the existing guideline across the Atlantic (or the Victoria harbour).
4. (To their juniors) we have told you what to do; we will not bare any responsibility for your mistake.