Friday, October 21, 2011

CBT psychiatrists told to stop insulting seriously ill patients by RCGP’s chairman, Dr Clare Gerada

By SOPHIE BORLAND, 21st October 2011: Doctors are insulting  seriously ill patients who are regularly taken to hospital by describing them as 'frequent flyers', a leading GP said yesterday.

Clare Gerada said the term was degrading as it referred to 'people who are sick and need our care and attention'.

The phrase is widely used by NHS staff out of patients' earshot to describe anyone who is admitted frequently to a hospital A&E unit.

Many of those labelled as 'frequent flyers' are elderly or have serious illnesses such as asthma, heart problems or diabetes.

Dr Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said doctors must never forget 'the simple act of caring' for their patients.

In a speech to 1,500 family doctors at the RCGP’s annual conference in Liverpool, she urged them not to lose sight of the patient as a person.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 21, 2011 at 5:00 AM

    This woman is Simon Wessely's wife - oh, the irony.

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  2. nmjOctober 21, 2011 at 10:48 AM

    Indeed, Anon, the irony.

    I come across Clare Gerada's tweets from time to time, someone I follow RTs her - so, yes, CG seems to be very strong on doctors actually listening to patients, yet she & SW are experts in NOT listening to ME patients.

    This seems rather hypocritical.

    She tried to influence the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME (2010) with utter psychobabble, completely dissed the Canadian Criteria (this was pre-ICC!)and said that to describe ME as neurological was nihilistic and alarming. (I paraphrase.)

    Here are her comments from then:

    http://www.cathcartmesupportgroup.org.uk/resources/ClareGeradaLETTER.pdf

    And my blog post from then: http://velo-gubbed-legs.blogspot.com/2010/09/scotish-good-practice-statement-for-me.html

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