LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Doctors and Patients
SIR,—Mr. Barton accuses hospital staffs of withholding information of the patient's illness from the patient himself or his relatives, or, alternatively, of deluding him with wilful lies. He pleads for what he calls a more adult approach and for telling the patient the whole truth about himself and his illness.
In general, doctors can be relied upon to tell patients the truth about their illnesses provided that the truth will bring comfort and reassurance. In serious illnesses or where the diagnosis is less obvious, doctors are often reticent, not for fear of errors in diagnosis, as suggested rather uncharitably by Mr. Barton, but because the doctor in such a case may convey to the patient some of his own anxiety, and by increasing the patient's apprehension may aggravate his illness. In the gravest illnesses and especially those in which it is unlikely that the patient will recover, most doctors are content to disclose something less than the whole truth to the patient though the relatives are always fully informed of the danger.
To take away hope from a patient is often to destroy life itself. How frequently in both hospital and general practice does one see a patient, to whom the true nature of his illness has for the first time been fully revealed, turn his face to the wall and die in a day or two from sheer loss of the will to live.
There are a few brave spirits who demand and will be satisfied with nothing less than the whole truth as to the incurable nature of their trouble, but most patients under such' conditions, though they may ask for the truth, do not really wish to hear it if it be unfavour- able. So doctors on occasion have recourse to half-truths or even to the pathetic lies of which Mr. Barton so strongly disapproves. Doctors always derived some comfort from the reflection that these falsehoods might be covered by a special dispensation or that Sterne's Recording Angel as he wrote them down blotted them out with a tear. This, however, does not app;ar to be the opinion of the orthodox Church. The National Health Service will fail, not through the minor irritations of out-patient waiting-rooms, which will be adjusted in time, but only if the medical profession part company with common
humanity, which God forbid.—Yours faithfully, ROBERT MAILER.
5 Park Circus. Glasgow. C.3.
Previous page
