(Half of all doctors are below average)

In an Education and Debate paper, Dr Jan Poloniecki makes the observation that even if all surgeons are equally good, half of them will have below average results; one will have the worst results and those results will be a long way below average. He writes that it will be be of little value if the Bristol case before the GMC is resolved merely by striking off three doctors , two of whom are already retired, without a wider lesson being learned. It will be of very great value if the case establishes that the health service should now equip itself to provide people contemplating an operation with a numerical estimate of the chances of failure.

Contact:

Dr Jan Poloniecki, Lecturer, Public Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, London [email protected]