Quality

Although our man from Pluto is secretly rather happy with the low failure rate in our final examination this year, I am less optimistic with the quality of our graduates.

After participating in this examination for 12 years, I understand the most trying task is to prepare the cases. These are the patients whom we use to test not only our students, but all those trainees about to sit for membership examination. Remind you: they are physicians-to-be and should, in theory, do much better than most of the final MB candidates. I would be very worried if they forget to mention a sternotomy scar, or the size of a spleen, or whether there are cervical lymph nodes, or haven't heard of inverted champagne bottles.

And therefore I am worried.

Or maybe I am outdated and completely wrong. When we were checking the cases and GY asked me what Kennedy's disease was, I gave him a one-minute lecture on the topic. In return he looked at me with an expression of seeing a monster rather than any sign of respect. And when the Royal College begins to cut down the requirement of acute medical training (for her membership examination), what could we expect elsewhere ?