The ethics of intimate examinations—teaching tomorrow's doctorsCommentary: Respecting the patient's integrity is the keyCommentary: Teaching pelvic examination—putting the patient first

Dear Sir

You seem to have misunderstood my contribution. It was a short
response in line with a recent piece in the BMJ encouraging letters to be
as short as possible while still making the point intended. I suppose this
worked as it has generated your response. In reality I agree totally with
all the conclusions of the articles. As a general surgery SHO I did not
feel it was ethically justified for me to do vaginal examinations on
patients when we had female, senior staff who could carry out the
examination. This would surely have been better for the patient but would
have reduced the experience I got. The issue of the patients consent is a
non-issue - nothing can be done without a patients consent. What I was
taling about is the fact that, intentionally or not, changes occuring in
medicine which are to patients benefit in one way will inevitably lead to
less experience for students and junior doctors. This could have
consequences in the long term, as my original response suggested.

Competing interests:  
None declared