Sir, - I am saddened by the treatment Mary O'Reilly received while a public patient (May 7th). Her experience is not unique and not confined to public patients. People undergoing tests for a life-threatening disease such as cancer are particularly vulnerable, and need special consideration from all hospital staff.
Irish medical schools are very aware of the difficulties in communication between doctors and patients and teach undergraduates to develop skills in this important area of medicine. The content of some courses include talks by patients about their experiences and needs. However, complaints continue to be made of poor communication and insensitive treatment by hospital doctors.
Perhaps the problem should be tackled also from the top, with courses for consultants and senior registrars, many of whom may have had little or no training in communication. Professor Lesley Fallowfield, University College London Medical School, in a paper in the current issue of The Journal of Clinical Oncology, reports on a programme she conducts for senior cancer clinicians to help them to improve their communication with patients. She states that "less than 35 per cent of the participants had received any previous training" and that "time, experience and seniority had not improved skills. Three months post-course, 95 per cent of the clinicians reported significant changes in their practice of medicine". Seventy-five per cent had initiated courses for junior doctors.
The major hospitals might issue a joint invitation to Professor Fallowfield and her team to give a course here. It could be sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies who produce drugs for the treatment of cancer. The many benefits resulting from such a course would include a reduction in stress in both doctors and their patients. - Yours, etc., Brenda Wheeler,
Crannagh Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.