When too much honesty can be cruel and destructive
Dr Vernon Coleman
Long, long ago doctors didn’t always tell patients if they had a serious disease such as cancer. They made a judgement about whether or not the patient could cope with the news and then used euphemisms to soften the blow. These days, doctors seem to take great delight in telling patients the worst news in a very blunt way. (Though there will always be a nurse on hand with a box of tissues ready). Doctors don’t sugar coat their diagnoses and they offer little in the way of hope. It is a sin not to offer all patients some hope. When I was a GP I had two patients with terminal illnesses who lived for many years after they had been abandoned by hospital doctors. There is good anecdotal evidence that many patients lived much longer when they didn’t know what was really wrong with them. Susan Hill, the writer, tells how her mother was told she had ‘ulcers’. She had a kidney, a large section of bowel and bladder and her uterus removed. The surgeon told Ms Hill’s mother that she would get well and she did – enjoying three years of excellent health. And then a friend referred to the illness by name. Susan Hill said that her mother was horrified and ‘shrivelled and died in eight weeks’. A doctor who works a good deal with cancer patients said this: ‘Tell the patient the truth, but only as much as they can bear and never, ever, remove hope.’
Taken from The End of Medicine by Vernon Coleman. You can buy a copy of the book from the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com . This book will change the way you see medicine and the world.
Copyright Vernon Coleman July 2025
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