AfPP RESIDENTIAL CONFERENCE 2019
wanted anyone with me, held my hand and told me the diagnosis. Although the diagnosis was the worst news, the experience was actually better. It’s the small things that make a difference to a patient, such as introducing yourself, sitting next to them so you are at eye level, or holding their hand.
“When the oncologist saw how frightened I was, he told me, ‘Kate, you’re going to be okay’. Again, it’s the little things that matter, and everyone can do it. Person-centred care is so important, rather than simply ticking the jobs lists and forgetting the patient. “A key core value is not defining a patient by their disease. I overheard one member of staff describe me as, ‘the girl with the rare cancer’. Now I have returned to work, I am encouraging staff to contextualise patients’ diseases within their own lives.”
Taking positive steps
Chris Pointon described how Kate’s cancer returned in 2013, and that she went back on chemotherapy. It was in August of that year that the #hellomynameis campaign started in earnest. “This initiative was built on Kate’s experience with hospital staff,” explained Chris. “Nurses, consultants and doctors would not introduce themselves, and, in fact, the only person who did was a porter. “The campaign started on Twitter - at this point Kate had 25,000 followers. Next, a website was built and people across the world started taking part. The message was clear - a simple introduction can go a long way. “As the fundraising campaign grew, we met then-Prime Minister, David Cameron, and high profile celebrities began getting involved, by publishing photos holding the ‘My name is…’ badges. “On 2 February 2015, the campaign was relaunched, but at the time, Kate was in hospital having chemotherapy. Despite this, she went to a TV studio to be interviewed, and travelled over 2000 miles to do talks. She was awarded the MBE and the University of Surrey even has a Kate Granger building.”
By July 2016, Kate was in palliative care, but even then was still setting herself targets. She managed to get Theresa May to endorse the campaign and received a hand written letter of encouragement.
“Kate died on 23 July 2016,” said Chris. “She died on her terms, with the people around her that she wanted. She was in control until the end. When I Tweeted her death it made the news and high profile people, such as Theresa May and Richard Branson, sent their condolences. “A few days before this, she told me that she had set up a Tweet which she wanted me to send two days after her death. It read, ‘Thank you for your support. Please look after Chris. PS: Don’t let him spend all of his money on a Range Rover!’”
Chris continued to attend talks and conferences in his free time, and in
September 2018 went back to work. He is now taking a step back from the campaign, which is now operating across the globe. He closed his talk with a personal message to delegates: “Patients are people, not diseases. I’d like the NHS to consider this.”
Learning from the past
Professor Harold Ellis CBE qualified at the University of Oxford in 1948 and trained in surgery in Oxford, London, Sheffield and Northampton. In 1960, he founded the academic surgical unit at the Westminster Medical School.
His talk described the early days of the National Health Service, and looked at how today’s staff can learn from the past. “Before the NHS was launched in 1948, a GP would own his own practice and, when he retired, would sell it. Consultants were called ‘honoraries’ as they gave up their time for free. Most of the seniors opposed the NHS as they didn’t want to be ‘socialised’ and were worried it would affect their pay.” Aneurin Bevan, one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour government, was the chief architect of the NHS. His response in a bid to appease seniors who expressed their concerns about payment, was: “I’ll stuff their mouths with money.” Prof Ellis shared his memories during his time at Sheffield Royal Infirmary, describing an example of an operating list. “Surgeons created a list of staff and, if an emergency happened, rather than prioritise, we would squeeze this into the list. Administrators would even tell us to cancel the later operations as they wanted to be shut by 5pm. I’m glad I’ve now retired as my response would have got me sacked! “Common diseases in 1948 included tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, rheumatic heart
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disease, duodenal ulcers in young men, and stomach cancer. Surgical unknowns in 1948 included joint replacements, arterial surgery, organ transplants, microsurgery, minimal invasive surgery, and cardiac surgery. “Perhaps the greatest change of all is
litigation. In 40 years as a surgeon, we never had a single claim against us.”
Continuing the theme of how the past can inform the future, historian of medicine at the University of Manchester, Dr Harriet Palfreyman, discussed ways of opening up the closed world of surgery to facilitate conversations between the public and those working in the operating theatre. Harriet’s work explores the role of visual culture in medical understandings of the body, health and disease. She has also worked on the history of surgery, particularly on the development of minimally invasive surgery in the 20th century.
She described her public engagement
project, ‘The Time Travelling Operating Theatre’ which used historical re-enactment to engage museum audiences with the history of surgery from the 19th century to the present day.
“In 2015 Imperial College London’s Centre for Engagement and Stimulation Science developed the project in a bid to use ideas of simulation to engage the public,” said Harriet. “The idea was to simulate the different ages of surgery, which was performed by actual clinicians.
“In the first example, clinicians acted out an ovariotomy from 1884. This would have been performed in a patient’s home, as hospitals were rife with infection. There was also a certain snobbery as hospitals were also full of poor people. “The surgery was performed using daylight, rather than gaslight, as anaesthetists used ether which is highly flammable. The anaesthetist would drop
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