Unifying Hierarchs and Fragmenting Individualists: Three Professional Groups

TL;DRAbstract

After Ann Dally left the drugs scene, her organisation, the Association of Independent Doctors in Addiction (AIDA), collapsed; but its short life and that of two other doctors’ groups can help us answer a question central to The Politics of Addiction. Why were the London consultants able to fend off outside regulation and set the standards by which other doctors were judged while the private doctors succumbed to extensive discipline? The Association of Independent Doctors in Addiction (1981–88), along with the Association of Independent Prescribers (AIP) (1996–98) and the London Consultants Group (LCG) (1968 to the present) represented private prescribers, NHS GPs and the London Clinic doctors. All three groups were acting as less formal mechanisms of self-regulation than the Inspectorate or General Medical Council (GMC). By comparing the characteristics and histories of these three groupings, I hope to show how and why the strategies of each succeeded or failed in protecting their own

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