Patient-turned-doctor shares in a book his views on the health system

Ben Bravery was trying to grow a business and had just fallen in love when, unexpectedly, he was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer. The diagnosis was rather surprising because, even though he was exhibiting some symptoms, such as weight loss and fainting, Ben was young, fit, and had no family history of cancer. The journey that followed truly changed the course of his life.

Many times, during treatments he felt misunderstood and had questions that went unanswered because he wasn't brave enough to speak up and ask them. "What was normal for them, for me was earth-shattering.", he explained. The build-up of moments like this led him to the idea that something had to change in order to improve patients’ care. Ben started to write things that could be better for patients and their respective families and even volunteered in an organization that supported other young people with cancer. He no longer saw himself returning to his former career and decided he had to get into the system himself by becoming a doctor.

"I went to medical school as a patient wanting to make things better for patients, not really understanding the other side of the doctor-patient equation," Ben said. After he got into med school, he was shocked to learn that empathy and compassion can easily be crushed either by the way medicine is taught or by the working shifts, which are overwhelming and even, at times, ruthless. Medical professionals are put through long hours and a very stressful environment, which evidently diminishes the importance of empathy and dehumanizes the patients’ care.

Although he says he doesn’t have all the answers, he wrote a book that provides his unique experience with many insights regarding the medical system. Ben Bravery’s memoir is titled ‘The Patient Doctor’ and is out now.

This story was adapted from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-29/doctor-patient-relationship-needs.... The images were taken from the same website and we do not own any of them.