Crippen would have loved it
Every now and then Dr Grumble tries to find a way to draw his blog to a close. Every time he tries there is always just one more thing he wants to vent his wrath over.
One of the things that used to baffle Dr Grumble was that the government's health policies were often so off the wall. It seemed that the only people to benefit from many of the most bizarre initiatives were the rich owners of businesses. Eventually Dr Grumble worked out why this was. If you don't know you may find a clue here.
18 comments:
So your going to end this blog?
I can't yet bring myself to kill off poor old Dr Grumble but I do think about it from time to time.
Please don't kill him off Dr G; now that Dr Crippen's gone we need you more than ever..
I went to a tutorial with the journalist Andy Cowper and I remember him saying that he was surprised that the medical blogging fraternity was not bigger. Although we have a trickle of new faces, we medical bloggers remain rather small in number and that is a great shame given that we doctors do have strong opinions. I suppose we are mostly busy doing other things and probably we all feel that nobody is going to listen to our views anyway. I suspect that is wrong and that as a group we have made a big mistake in not shouting our views from the roof tops.
Those doctor bloggers who are standing for parliament I find very disappointing. Perhaps unsurprsingly they are always looking over their shoulders and towing the party line and that just makes them very boring.
Next time post it here. Us readers could be the new Ted Grumble.
:)
Sorry, anonymous, I deleted my comment above yours because I posted it by mistake in the wrong place!
Politics has always been in the pocket of big businesses.
What aggravates me is the audacity of those who remain to pretend this doesn't happen or that they've never been involved and they knew nothing of it.
And also the unfortunate timing of this 'revelation' - just before a general election....
Please don't tell me no one noticed the 'coincidence'.
Once again we're all being played like fools for that special vote so one party gets the pole position to milk our country for what they can.
I'm convinced Blair stood down cos he knew he could make his money very easy now and why work for a living/fortune if you can scam it?
Has he stopped blogging because of his horrible comments about people with CFS/ME?
I'm beginning to detect a theme
http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/
http://drraysfocalspot.blogspot.com/
Forgetful Girl, Dr Crippen certainly trod on a few toes but his observations would have been greatly diminished had he spent too much time trying to please everyone, or avoid any form of controversy?
And you could add Dr Rant.
There were one or two other promising bloggers who petered out early.
Crippen wasn't afraid of ruffling feathers and that was one of his strengths. He said things that some of us would not have said even with the cloak of anonymity.
Controversy is the life blood of a really popular blog. Crippen knew that.
There is no way Grumble would set out to wind up patients with ME. But this blog might be a lot more lively if he did.
I think one of the points about Dr C was that he committed to blog the things Doctors would say in their more frustrated / ranting moments - cf. also Dr Rant. Or "after a bad day", if you prefer. I always thought it wasn't necessarily (and sometimes quite clearly not) his considered view. The interesting thing was trying to work out for which issues he really was giving you the considered view, and for which the exasperated rant/slight wind-up.
For a GP blogger who at times comes close to Dr C's shoot-from-the-lip momemts, though at less length, you could try Phil Peverley in Pulse, see e.g. here. And of course the Jobbing Doctor is still with us, blogospherically speaking.
PS Was Dr C being "horrible" to the ME people? I'm not sure he was. He was certainly telling them things they didn't want to hear, but that's not the same thing.
I think, Dr Aust, you have it about right. Dr Crippen said what many of us at times think.
Somebody once commented here that he thought Dr Grumble was 'holding back'. I remember the comment because it was absolutely right. There were (and are) things I might have said that I felt were too hot even for a (semi) anonymous blog. They are the things we whisper to trusted colleagues when passing in the hospital corridor. They can be so sensitive that they don't get a mention here. That's why I have probably never even mentioned noctors here. Nor patients with ME.
Upsetting people is not a good idea if you want to keep your job.
Amen (strictly agnostically) to that, Dr G. I can think of plenty of things relating to the University that you won't find me blogging about.
On the whole I try only to blog about work if what is going on has some sort of "universality" beyond the Groves of Academe. A recent example is this one about email, while probably my personal favourite of my output in this vein is the true (ish) story The Multi-colored Golf Umbrella.
PS Email is actually one of the little indicators that clinicians are still a lot more pressured than we are in the University. The giveaway is that I have never had an email from any of the NHS Consultants that help us to teach the course that ran to more than 3 short sentences (1 or 2 is more usual).
In contrast, emails from academics who are part of the course administration usually run to at least one proper paragraph, and usually more. And finally, ones from people whose main job in the Medical School is some kind of administration are INVARIABLY multi-paragraph specials. And typically cc'd to about ten other people besides whoever they are sent to.
Keep blogging, Dr G - it's good to have you. I shall miss Dr Crippen: he was always interesting, even when I strongly disagreed with him.
It's also important to be able to say (or write; bloggging is kind of a mid-way point) things that some people will not like. It's healthy to read opinions you don't agree with: it avoids confirmation bias, and helps you learn to argue.
I learnt something interesting on the radio the other day, Andy. Somebody important (I forget who) was asked if he minded when he received angry criticism. He pointed out that people with entrenched views get angry when you are right. Rightly or wrongly I try not to wind people up but I have noticed that some of the most angry remarks come from people who do not seem to have any arguments.
Unlike many, I am quite prepared to change my mind on the basis of evidence. I have got things wrong here when I have shot from the hip. I could always stick to my guns and fight back mustering whatever evidence I can but I am happy to change my mind when necessary. Many, I think, are not.
George Monbiot makes the same point:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/03/12/the-german-disease/
If I'm to admire Crippen for anything - it would be for his honesty to himself. I still think he was/is a miserable old bastard who failed to adapt to changing times. I'm not sure if that's a criticism or mere observation - as sometimes I too don't want to adapt to changes. I'd still have him as a GP were he still practising.
As for the contention he emotes - I only became irked by those comments that invalidated the suffering of his many respondents - and the derogatory comments on nurses when clearly having little understanding of the profession (something I note he became more edumacated on).
His may have been a valid opinion - but so too would telling some of your overweight smoking lard ass patients** they're getting the illnesses they deserve as a GP might want - straight from the hip - but we don't do that do we? Why? Beyond not wanting to lose our job or license - we also have a humanity that we like to think we're a little more tolerant of one and all and to tell some suffering person it's a crock cos science doesn't say so is a little infuriating.
I also think his analysis was way to shallow and oft superficial - and shamedly many of his medical colleagues in sheeplike fashion jumping to opinion without half an understanding.
Ok done... I don't wish to relocate the trolling to the good Dr Grumble's site. I will miss the NHSBD site for that.
And with that - Mr Ian departed the medical blogosphere....
Thanks for all the fish.
**I am an overweight smoking lard ass and I deserve the illnesses I develop - I told my GP so today.
I am happy to see you are still posting despite this indecisiveness :)
Post a Comment