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The Champion
What has the Royal College of General Practitioners been up to lately? According to a news item they put out in November 2012, they have “launched a toolkit” with the aim of encouraging doctors “to reduce antibiotic prescribing in situations where the evidence shows they are of little or no benefit.”
A commendable aim, but I don’t see how it’s going to be helped by the mixed metaphor. One could launch a ship, or assemble a toolkit, but launching a toolkit? Also, grammar is evidently not the writer’s strong point: there is a singular subject (antibiotic prescribing) with a plural verb (they are).
These points aside, how do they describe this activity?
We are told that:
“Each year the RCGP chooses three clinical areas and supports efforts to raise the profile and awareness of these areas both within general practice and across primary care. Each priority programme runs for three years and is led by a clinical champion. The role of the clinical champion is to work in partnership with key decision-makers and opinion-formers in each clinical area on projects that seek to improve the care provided and patient outcomes.”
By the way, what’s the difference between within general practice and across primary care?
The doctor at the centre of the push to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing has the familiar sounding name of Michael Moore. He is the “RCGP Clinical Champion for Antimicrobial Stewardship”, no less.
What a wonderful collection of clichés and buzz-words! Raise the profile, priority programme, partnership, key decision-makers, opinion-formers, champion, stewardship. At least they left out the stakeholders.
But aren’t we getting a bit carried away here? Chambers Dictionary defines champion as one who fights in single combat for himself or for another; one who defends a cause; a successful combatant; in sports, one who has excelled all others; a hero.
It reminds of me of The Champion, a boys’ weekly story paper which was published between 1929 and 1955, with characters with stirring names such as Rockfist Rogan and Jet Jackson.
The doctor’s namesake, Michael Moore of the paunch and base-ball cap, it seems to me, is a real champion in his efforts to right the wrongs visited upon the downtrodden, the victimised, those lacking health insurance, etc. See his films The Awful Truth, Sicko, etc.
In contrast, this Michael Moore works in partnership with key decision makers.
©Gabriel Symonds, March 2013