How to make Nothing sound like Something

Encapsulation of what goes wrong
A regular columnist in a certain medical journal who had run out of ideas, again seems to have been afflicted by the dreaded writer’s block. So, once more he’s turned to his favourite subject: himself. The first thing that strikes one about his latest column is the repeated use of the words ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘my’, though I suppose that’s to be expected in autobiographical writing. The piece consist of only 497 words, but the personal pronoun or derivatives occur 23 times – that’s once every 22 words.

What does our doughty columnist actually say? An intriguing sub-heading tells us: ‘The experience [at his hospital appointment] encapsulated so much that goes wrong in the health service.’ Oh dear. So, what went wrong?

Systematic, attentive, and inclined to learn
He was offered an appointment with a specialist nurse for what’s called a clinical review, though it wasn’t clear why, since he’d seen his consultant only a few weeks earlier. However, we’re told, promisingly, that ‘nurses tend to be more systematic in their clinical reviews, often seem more attentive than doctors, and are more inclined to learn from patients and offer guidance on self-management.’ In spite of this, the conclusion of the visit was: ‘It felt as though I was looking after the system instead of vice versa.’ Well, that was rather a waste of time then, but at least he did a bit of looking after the system.

In fact, it was more than a waste of time, for although our columnist at first felt rather pleased to be invited for his clinical review, and even delayed a planned break to attend, it came nowhere near his expectations.

Dear reader, are you still awake? Good, because we’ll now get to the bottom line:

We so often run services in the NHS as though the only important thing is the content they provide.

Do we indeed? But what could be more important about NHS services than their content?

Clarity and transparency
It’s this:

In reality, clarity and transparency (what’s the difference?) about contexts and expectations matter to patients just as much, if not more.

You can picture it in your mind’s eye. Patients demonstrating in the street – assuming they can find room among all the striking junior doctors and other staff – carrying placards saying:

We demand clarity and transparency about contexts and expectations in NHS services!

Text © Gabriel Symonds

Picture credit: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

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