At such times, public confidence can drain away and professional morale can plummet. There is no doubt that patients need surgeons, but surgeons undoubtedly need the trust and confidence of those they seek to serve. Recent events have made that painfully, crystal clear. But they also provide an opportunity to consolidate that essential contract between public, practitioner and patient on a more secure basis. Openness and accountability are important.
Respect has to be earned and in many ways that is quite right.
Anything that smacks of arrogance or high-handedness is unlikely to be productive. The challenge facing this great College, I suggest, is to move into the future with a proper and stabilising sense of pride and confidence in its great and distinguished history, allied to a commitment to adapt and revitalise that tradition in the face of new demands and expectations. It is a challenge to which I am sure you are equal, as you have indeed been equal to so many challenges over the last 200 years. For many surgeons down the centuries and still today, their vocation has been rooted in a profound, often religious, vision of human life. This vision is expressed so beautifully in the readings we have heard this evening.