In a robust address at the annual British Medical Association Conference Service, on Sunday 26th June, the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Revd. Nigel McCulloch accused the government of undermining trust between the medical profession and the public. He said:
"In the health service, trust has become a management-speak word. It has lost its once valued sense of reliability and integrity".
The Bishop praised the work of doctors who, he said were often placed under unfair and intense pressure because of unrealistic expectations on the part of patients and the ever-growing burden of bureaucracy:
"Many doctors enter the profession because they have a sense of vocation and an altruistic desire to care for their fellow human beings. It is an utter tragedy when the pressures they face are so unreasonable that their morale collapses, addiction sets in and their own health is destroyed."
Bishop McCulloch was blunt in his reference to the skills drain from developed countries. Referring to his many visits to Africa where he had seen for himself the sparse and sometimes non-existent health care in hospitals and rural health centres, the Bishop said:
"It is a scandal that we are effectively robbing Third World countries of their doctors and nurses."
Bishop McCulloch also suggested building on the idea of twinning arrangements where personal contact could be built up between centres with many medical facilities and places where there were virtually none. He said:
"I am not calling for grand schemes to be put in place but simply the creating of personal contacts that enable individuals to understand the disparities and encourage secondments and visits that in a quiet but practical way can make a difference."