anniesavage

Eurgh. Steaming pile of dog-shite of a day.

I have now been acutely reminded of why some people hate doctors. I spent the afternoon following a senior doctor who, despite having accrued what must be at least 15 years worth of medical training, at untold cost to the NHS (and no doubt himself) could still not manage one of the most basic skills known to physicians.

Listen to the patient.

First and foremost; listen to the patient. It costs you nothing, it requires little to no special training. You may know the diagnosis, but at the end of the day it is the patient who knows what's wrong with them. All the evidence based treatment and platitudes in the world mean nothing if they can't actually lessen the impact of the disease on the way the patient chooses to live their life.

I wont go into specifics, i'm pretty sure it would be unprofessional (im not convinced putting this up isnt- anonymous or otherwise) but I needed to get that off my chest. It needed to go somewhere, if not to remind anyone else to remind myself- never disappear so far up your own backside that you can no longer hear what the person you're trying to help is trying to tell you.

I'm off to disappear into a bottle of wine...