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The only reason for the existence of Surgical Care Practitioners (SCP) is that there is a shortage of doctors This is just one more example of tasks that should be performed by doctors being given over to non-medically qualified personnel. I am not saying it should not be done - necessity decides everything. But this is just another instance of slipping standards. How can SCPs work to the same standard as surgical trainees?
Healthcare is a profound process that alters both physician and patient. Medical education is a demanding, exacting, life-altering process that trains physicians to alter the patient's anatomy (surgery) and physiology (medicine). Anatomical alterations are the exclusive domain of surgeons, whose training is the longest and most demanding of all specialties. Surgeons require not just knowledge, but also strength, stamina, speed, dexterity, and acuity. Surgery is so central to healthcare that the history of surgery is the history of healthcare.
Re: Five minutes with . . . Charlie Auld
The only reason for the existence of Surgical Care Practitioners (SCP) is that there is a shortage of doctors This is just one more example of tasks that should be performed by doctors being given over to non-medically qualified personnel. I am not saying it should not be done - necessity decides everything. But this is just another instance of slipping standards. How can SCPs work to the same standard as surgical trainees?
Competing interests: No competing interests