It is many years since I set foot in a hospital as a Doctor (in the early 2000s). The last decade however has taught me a huge amount about being a patient in the NHS, mainly from the time I completed accelerated neurorehabilitation after a six coma due to bacterial meningitis in 2006, which left me physically disabled.

In a nutshell, there’s no “ifs, ands, or buts”. Doctors, nurses, OTs, speech and language therapists, physios and health care professionals, I firmly believe, should be amongst the highest valued members of society.

However, Sue Marsh has just written a blogpost in the famous blog ‘Diary of a Benefit Scrounger’. This single blogpost has reminded me what an absolutely wonderful profession medicine is.

It is really an honour and privilege for those who work in it. Sue’s blogpost explains the importance of Doctors listening to the patient, and making use of all possible clues in making the correct diagnosis. They say that most of the history can be obtained from the history, even before examining the patient. Sue’s blogpost is a brilliant description of that. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, more famous for having written the Sherlock Holmes detective novels, was a leading physician in his day-job, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Sue’s blogpost also should also remind Doctors that, instead of grabbing for the notes, it’s always worth listening to the patient directly. And above all the patient is always right, and knows more about his or her own condition that you do (if you’re a Doctor).