Quality and the NHS next stage review.

摘要

Along with the white coat and stethoscope, the Hippocratic Oath-the injunction to do no harm-is one of the defining features of the medical profession in the public mind. It holds such significance and continues to resonate today precisely because it was the first time a clear distinction between curing and killing was drawn.1 Over two millennia since the oath was first taken, safety remains the first dimension of quality in advanced health systems. Today, health care is in transition from care to cure. The consequence has been the development of what Lewis Thomas has characterised as halfway technologies-those which have actually increased our capacitytodoharm.2