HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Treasure, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Treasure, T.

Improving surgical care: looking beyond individual competence

Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery, St George's Hospital, London, UK

In 1998 the General Medical Council (GMC)—the body responsible for registering doctors and for setting standards of professional behaviour in the UK—found three senior doctors from Bristol guilty of professional misconduct. The story, a complex one, centred on the work of two cardiac surgeons whose operative mortality for difficult operations for children with congenital heart disease (transposition of the great arteries and complete atrioventricular septal defects) was higher than expected.¹ There was public outcry. The surgeons were jostled outside the GMC's building by angry crowds shouting "murdering bastards" and carrying cardboard coffins.²

These events—now known simply as "Bristol"—are the subject of a public inquiry looking in depth at the circumstances of the unnecessary deaths (the inquiry can be followed on the Bristol web site http//:www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk). The focus of the GMC was the surgeons' professional conduct. The inquiry, probing into aspects of patient care beyond individual competence, has found that . . . [Full text of this article]