A life in the day of Mrs W

Editor – David Kerr's paper captures perfectly the experience of many patients in the modern health service (Clin Med October 2008 pp 515–6). It is reminiscent of the recent Romanian film The Death of Mr Lazarescu in which a dying patient is kept on a trolley overnight and shunted around several different anonymous hospitals. The huge concern is that our focus has been taken off the obvious – patient care. Commonsense has increasingly been pushed aside in our protocol-driven, production line approach to hospital treatment in the 21st century.

• © 2009 Royal College of Physicians