Medicus has just had its 2023 Annual General Meeting, at which we had pleasure in welcoming back to the Board Dr Wayne Cunningham, a very experienced general practitioner. Wayne recently returned from Bahrain, where he was Professor of Family Medicine with the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain for some years. Prior to his departure from New Zealand in 2015, he was a longstanding GP in Milton, Otago and a previous Board member of Medicus. Wayne has had a longstanding interest in the impact on doctors of the receipt of complaints. This was the subject of his Masters thesis with Otago University in 1999, in which he recorded the following:
an intense negative emotional response associated with feelings of guilt and questioning of self
an immediate impact on the capacity of the doctor to practice medicine efficiently
an immediate impact on the doctor-patient relationship with both the complainant and other patients associated with a reduction in the level of trust
an immediate negative impact on the doctor’s relationship with their spouse and family and colleagues with a need for meaningful support
The full thesis can be viewed here
Wayne is not only an experienced GP but a published author, an experienced teacher and a recognised communicator within the medical fraternity. It is with pleasure that Wayne has returned to the Board and we have accepted his offer of a trial period in which he will provide personal support (of a non-medicolegal nature) to recipients of complaints, where Medicus advisors have identified the value such support would be to the doctor/health professional concerned.
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