We welcome the restatement by Craddock et al ^{Reference Craddock, Kerr and Thapar1} of the depth and diversity of ‘added value’ that the psychiatrist brings to mental health services.

In 2007, we undertook a standardised survey of the views of psychiatrists, mental health nurses and patients on what were the key attributes a psychiatrist should possess, which we entitled ‘What makes a good psychiatrist?’

Overall, 244 psychiatrists, 70 nurses and 86 out-patients from across Scotland completed the survey. The top four key attributes to being ‘a good psychiatrist’ identified by the survey were different for the three groups.

Psychiatrists ranked clinical knowledge as the most important attribute (47.5%); ‘communicates clearly’ came second (20%), ‘interested in people’ third (19%) and ‘honest and trustworthy’ fourth (18%).

Top four attributes identified by nurses were: approachable (29%), clinical knowledge (27%), communicates clearly (24%) and good listener (14%).

For patients, the ranking was different still: good listener (41%), approachable (25%), treats patients as equals (23%) and non-judgemental (16%).

There are echoes of various guideline documents in these results (e.g. New Ways of Working, Good Medical Practice) and of a similar survey from Ireland. ^{Reference Cullen, Bury and Leahy2} Clearly, communication skills and individual values and attitudes are important, as is clinical knowledge. We believe that the patients did not rate clinical knowledge highly as they simply assume it to be there, even if the depth of general medical knowledge is not always appreciated. All three groups questioned did not feel that interests outside of psychiatry, or being well presented, were important professional attributes.