Inconvenient Truths

When it comes to dementia, honesty is not always the best policy, says Dr Max

- Dr Max

ONE OF THE BASIC expectations the public have of doctors is honesty. But what would you think if I told you that research has shown that 70 per cent of doctors admitted to lying to their patients? It is inexcusable, surely? Grossly unprofessional and uncaring; a clear breach of the doctor-patient relationship. Some of the lies told included reassuring patients that their wives or husbands were still alive, when in fact they were dead. This seems unimaginable but, if I am honest, I have told exactly the same lie to several patients whose spouses had died. Mrs Walton was in her eighties and desperate to see her husband. She’d been in hospital after a fall and was in pain. She called out for him frequently and couldn’t understand why he wasn’t there to comfort her. She was becoming more and more distressed and would try to get up to find him, despite being at risk of falling again.