With the Chief Medical Officer advocating the maintenance of "medical excellence" on one hand, and the recruitment and morale problem on the other, it is hardly surprising that high quality candidates for practice vacancies are a little thin on the ground. Two solutions present themselves. Either we improve conditions to attract the 'right' sort of doctor, or we lower our sights a degree or two and start promoting 'medical mediocrity'. (for more unpublishable rubbish, see my webpages) -- Iain Hotchkies ambition: polymath currently: jack of all trades www.hotch.demon.co.uk corollary: master of none %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%