Sir, – Whether or not physical examination is a “relationship-building tool, helping to reconnect patients and doctors”, as Muiris Houston believes, I learned in Dublin in the 1960s that it should always be carried out because a) it gives you time to think and b) you discover what you missed the last time. – Yours, etc,
DR JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Donegal