Doctors have become convenient punching bags for politicians, regulators, journalists, but most alarmingly, increasingly, for one another.

We complain endlessly about the decline in respect for our profession, yet rarely examine our own contribution to it.

It can’t be a distant memory, surely? But there was a time when being a doctor carried social standing, earned through years of training, professional responsibility and the trust placed in us by our patients.

This was when governments sought our counsel and the community recognised that the privilege of practising medicine came with extraordinary responsibility.