TY - JOUR T1 - Editor's Briefing JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 339 LP - 339 DO - 10.3399/bjgp12X652157 VL - 62 IS - 600 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2012/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/62/600/339.abstract N2 - It's a mad world my masters! The BMA has led the profession into what I consider to be ill-judged and very badly timed industrial action, the senior academic in charge of the NHS Commissioning Board has attributed excess weekend emergency admissions to GPs playing too much golf, and other powers-that-be have instructed healthcare professionals not to use the word obesity in relation to fat patients — who presumably have instead, in the ghastly argot, ‘weight management issues’. I once worked for a wonderful obstetrician who, in a soft brogue and with an admiring twinkle in his eye, could ask his patients ‘And tell me Mrs Davies, how is it that a woman like you can have become so terribly fat?’ without giving the slightest offence. But I recognise that the climate has changed. While I was always comfortable enquiring of a patient with alcohol on their breath at morning surgery if they had needed an eye-opener, or asking someone with a hacking cough and darkly nicotine-stained fingers to put two and … ER -