Page 4 - Summer 19

I mentioned change and how we
have to deal with it however comfortable.I’vehadmyshareof
that, this summer. Christine who
has been in the practice for 40 years,
retired from the reception job at the
end of June. Despite the fact that we knew it
was coming, we did not know how to prepare for it. All I knew was that I didn’t fancy trying to break in someone new at my stage of life, so we blundered into the ‘abyss’. It means I am doing much more on email than ever before, spending some time on office telephone duty, running my own diary, organising my long-distance ‘roun’ds’, pricing my own work and collecting fees - all completely foreign stuff to me.
Never has she been
‘binned’before.Thetitleof this particular email was ‘the attack on alternative medicine’. Perhaps a little paranoia is not
My own feeling is that all the opposition we currently face is a desperate attempt to stifle the’voice and message of alternative medicine before it becomes mainstream. I smell fear and panic. We have to stand firm while we are buffeted as the storm passes through. I believe it will blow out and reason will prevail. Truth – that must be our byword. We have to be true to our patients,
thinking very deeply about this and how to take it forward. I shall produce the results of my machinations for the Working Party’s perusal very soon.
As ever, since the start of my presidency, the RCVS Position Statement looms over us. The RCVS appears to have been quite content to sit behind this and watch developments. It behoves us all to be watchful and careful in our work. Science and welfare are still ostensibly the banner that is flying from RCVS HQ. It is interesting to note, however, that the new President has stated in his inaugural speech that he intends to build bridges. Let’s see!
News slightly removed from our own focus is that it appears Google has constructed algorithms that are ‘demoting’ websites that assert the tenets of alternative medicine and perhaps give a flavour that is not in line with the pushing of vaccines. One notable, informative and outspoken site has experienced a 90% fall off in ‘hits’.
While it may be argued that Google is promoting material that is supported by proper referencing, rather than discriminating against alternative views, that does not appear to be a consistent factor. It may be a coincidence but my wife sent me an email at the weekend which was relegated to my spam folder. We exchange emails over all sorts of issues, usually sharing things that we have found on the internet, as we are usually on the internet at different times. It must amount to hundreds per annum.
inappropriate?
If I have been a bit pre-occupied over the last two months, please forgive me as I grapple to establish a new routine and try to ensure nothing falls between the cracks!
At our Working Party meeting in Stirling, it was clear that we have, as usual, no unified approach to the challenges that face us. I have, amongst all the other challenges, been
. . . all the opposition we currently face is a desperate attempt to stifle the voice and message of alternative medicine before it becomes mainstream.
true to our clients, true to our oath and, perhaps most of all, true to ourselves.
Cheer up – it will soon be Christmas! Chris
. . . the new President [RCVS] has stated in his inaugural speech that he intends to build bridges.
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