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I refer to Dr Quah Thuan Chong’s letter, “ ” (April 3). While I appreciate his sentiments, it is unfair to generalise that junior doctors are lacking in what he characterises as the “human touch”. There are many factors which may have contributed to his perceptions, and these warrant addressing. First, the current workflow which requires junior doctors to spend most of their time typing into electronic medical records limits the opportunity to interact with patients. Rather than acquiring the skills of doctoring during their nascent years of training, they have been relegated to becoming glorified typists. A former CEO at a healthcare facility used to say that his mantra was to make the facility more efficient by doing everything “cheaper, faster and better”. With due respect, I think such a philosophy contributes to the dehumanisation of the medical profession. Second, despite the recent attention paid to improving the welfare of junior doctors, many senior doctors still insist on junior staff turning up at 6am and finishing work later than 7pm, all in the name of “training”. In addition, senior clinicians have been observed bullying and humiliating junior doctors, to the point that some junior doctors have been driven to depression. Junior doctors tend to emulate the behaviour of their seniors, who should be setting better examples. Third, the expectations of patients have changed over the years. While patients were generally respectful of healthcare workers previously, we now face patients who come with a sense of entitlement and general disrespect for professionals. In addition, the relative ease with which complaints and legal action can be taken against doctors does not help the stressful environment within which they work. This requires a reset of public expectations which, while not impossible, requires herculean political will to step in from the authorities. If office-holders and hospital administrators seem unwilling to take care of junior doctors and treat them with respect, how can we expect them to take care of patients? We can do better.