DOCTOR AND PATIENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 November 1934, Page 4

DOCTOR AND PATIENTS

“DOGMATIC STATEMENTS" The attitude a doctor should adopt towards his patients and their relatives was dealt with by Sir John Rose Bradford, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, when he opened tile new session-of University Colleges Medical School recently. “One of the fundamental lessons,” he said, “is that nothing should be said or done to a patient by the practitioner that would be resented by the practitioner if it were done or said to him were the positions reversed. Much needless mental suffering is caused by incautious statements to patients or their relatives about their ailments — statements often merely thoughtless, but sometimes not to be justified.

"Tims nothing is more common than for the doctor to be equally dogmatic in his statements on facts which are definitely known to be established, and on other so-called facts that are merely matters of opinion. You must never forget that much of what the public really desire to learn from us is not known with the certainty that justifies dogmatic statements. “This cautiousness in speech does not mean that you should say nothing, still less that the matter should be obscured by a cloud of words, especially of professional jargon, but that the actual position should be put in as few words as .possible, and in the simplest language possible. “Further, never forget that no patient, and no anxious relative, is really quite normal when face to face with the doctor, especially when he is summing-up and pronouncing judgment.”

“Never forget,” Sir John added, “that perhaps the worst suffering is mental and not physical. Much misery may be caused by a careless word, as well as by carelessness and roughness in physical examination. “A thorough physical examination is not the same thing as a rough physical examination, and more will be elicited of value to us by gentleness than by roughness. It is by no means' uncommon for roughness and thoroughness to be strangely confused in the mind and actions of the diagnostician.”