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Dr Nurhan Sutcliffe 2018-04-19 Person 1 5 0

My daughter (who is aware that I am posting this review for her), saw Dr Sutcliffe this morning and spoke to me on the telephone shortly afterwards. She was clear that Dr Sutcliffe did not say anything to her that was inaccurate or unkind: it was the lack of compassion that did the damage. She made an effort to get to the appointment and (as always) experienced pain as a result of the journey. She felt that Dr Sutcliffe did not respond to her explaining that she is in intermittent severe pain and that her life has been hugely changed by the injury she received a few months ago, on top of her pre-existing long-term bone condition. She describes Dr Sutcliffe having told her that her condition was extremely rare and that saying she had never come across it before, that the low mood could account for the pain, that mental health services were in a different Trust, that it was not necessary for her to look at the most recent X-ray because it had been reported as "satisfactory" (despite my daughter expressing fear about what she herself had seen on the X-ray) . By saying all these things she added to my daughter's sense of hopelessness and helplessness. My daughter is well aware that there is no "magic bullet" or quick fix, but she always responds with increased hopefulness to health professionals who demonstrate understanding of her predicament, show concern and treat her as a whole human being. In general her expectaions and hopes are realistic. I do not think that her reaction to Dr Sutcliffe was simply due to hearing (yet again) unwelcome truths about her condition. Dr Sutcliffe would do well to refrain from projecting her own sense of ignorance and helplessness (or indifference) onto the patient. She missed the opportunity to encourage hope and trust by showing respect for what the patient had to say (in fact she said that the radiologist had seen more X-rays than the patient, which of course is true, but is also a put-down). Surely despair gets in the way of physical healing? Dr Sutcliffe had no clear "practical" solutions to offer, and no-one was surprised by that: in effect, what she said and didn't say (the compassion she failed to show, the added despair that she caused) was to the detriment of my daughter's emotional and physical health. I gather that there was a medical student present, and that he showed more interest and compassion than Dr Sutcliffe: perhaps she didn't have her attention fully on my daughter because of his presence; on the other hand, perhaps his reaching out to her points up the lack of something in the Consultant.