While reading the article ‘GP apologises for slapping raging toddler’ that appeared recently in 6minutes, I instantly recalled two occasions on which I may have assaulted a patient.

Now, stop me if you have read this one before because, with advancing years, I cannot now recall what I’ve written about and what I haven’t.

Anyway, we are way back in the early 1960s when, from memory, corporal punishment was not outlawed — but certainly not encouraged in medical circles.

First occasion