July Focus

[摘要] Writing this column makes me feel like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner (I even have the authentic grey beard and glittering eye). My suave, well-dressed colleagues are minding their own business, strolling towards the wedding feast of their real interests – seeing patients, planning the next dawn strike on the NHS, the delights of the Back Pages, or the real pleasures of life, when I grab them by the arm: ‘Read this. It will change your life.’ Embarrassed, they do their best to shrug me off and move on without creating too public a disturbance. But then every so often the pleading becomes more insistent. ‘No, no, this is really important. You have to read it.’ Such a paper appears on page 503, exploring the events of the lives of people who subsequently committed suicide. As qualitative papers should, it describes a range of behaviours and events and readers will draw their own conclusions. The authors feel that some of these suicides could have been prevented by more prompt action from the GPs, but make it clear that, even among those who did consult in the month prior to their suicide, this would only save a small proportion of the total. Others conceal the severity of their illness from their doctors and their loved ones. But beyond the conclusions, the reason for recommending the paper is that the stories are so moving – tragic tales of inexpressible sadness, of stoicism and of the ordinariness of it all. It may not make us succeed in saving any lives, but I challenge anyone reading these accounts not to finish with a redoubled desire to do so.

[学科分类] 卫生学