Integrity and altruism

Doctors should be committed to integrity, compassion, altruism, continuous improvement and working in partnership with members of the wider healthcare team. So says an article in today's Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine written by Richard Smith, previously a campagning editor of the British Medical Journal.Richard is now Chief Executive of United Health Europe, a commercial organisation founded by Simon Stevens, who from 1997-2004 was the British Government’s Health Policy Advisor, serving both as the Prime Minister’s Health Advisor at 10 Downing Street, and as policy advisor to successive Secretaries of State for Health at the Department of Health.When Stevens left for the private sector there were murmurings from various health pundits that he had decided to take the money and run. There are strictures against government advisors moving into the private sector to profit from their time in the public service. I make no comment. Let's hope that UHE conducts itself with integrity and altruism.