Editorial

Abstract

There are only two qualities in the world: efficiency and inefficiency — or so Shaw’s literary hyperbole would have us believe. Perhaps romanticists still wistfully yearn for the days of the Artist-doctor, purveyor
of the gifts and skills of healing, days when the theory of “God’s will” could be invoked to explain away failures. Now we have the “change agents” , the technologists, the computer men: protagonists of the  efficiency creed. They herald the coming of automatic systems and computer control; the apotheosis of the Machine.

Most doctors welcome change that for them means less of the drudgery of medicine and for patients faster, earlier and more accurate diagnosis. All realize, perhaps, that automation and computerization can do these things. Their limited application so far (as compared to potential uses) has by and large confirmed this. What sort of information do we have, however, on the social and structural changes that widespread mechanisation will cause within the hospital service. Only a few, and on the whole inadequate, attempts to answer this question have been made in industry but they can maybe provide some clues to help avoid dangers and disadvantages.