Modern healthcare: a technical giant, yet an ethical child?

Abstract

Within our healthcare systems, avoidable error rates and medico-legal bills are soaring, care home and hospital scandals are frequent and patient-reported consternation and even frank distress with the inhuman way they are routinely ‘dealt with’ are all now so commonplace as to be almost normative. All of these things - and more - vividly illustrate that much is wrong within modern medicine and healthcare and that much, therefore, needs to be put right. If Society continues to tolerate this crisis of disregard and neglect and if it does not urgently take the time to consider why and how we have arrived at where we currently are - in order to take corrective actions - then we will have reached a very sad point in human history indeed.