TY - JOUR T1 - May Focus JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 306 LP - 306 VL - 58 IS - 550 AU - David Jewell Y1 - 2008/05/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/58/550/306.abstract N2 - Reviewing an account of a celebrated Victorian murder, in The Guardian, Ian Rankin quotes the author describing pioneering detectives as taking over from priests and prophets the task of bringing order out of chaos.* On page 355 of his Pickles lecture, Sean Hilton introduces the idea of ‘chaordic organisations’ that exist in between order and chaos, of which the NHS is a prime example. There's an echo here. Some years ago David Metcalfe presented a diagram showing general practice occupying the space between the hard-edged world of hospital medicine and the messy world our patients inhabit. Trying to make sense of the disorderly way in which our patients experience illness is another way in which we try to create order; and so, in a different way, is conducting and … ER -