By Bevan Roy
Bevan Roy was eight years old when a grommet operation left him deaf in his right ear.
His family could not claim medical misadventure because his hearing test records disappeared from Rotorua Hospital and they could not prove it was fine before the operation.
At 14 he suffered a stress-related
stomach ulcer from the bullying and teasing that was the lot of a partially deaf and "different looking" child - the result of an earlier mismanaged harelip operation.
Today, he never goes to parties because he cannot hear conversations.
But Bevan Roy did not grow up hating doctors.
He became one.
Drawing from that childhood trauma, his medical training and experience as an Ellerslie-based GP, he sees clearly what lies behind many of the responses the Herald has been flooded with since we asked people this week to come forward with their accounts of medical misadventure.
Many were tragic cases of genuine medical misadventure. As many were people who believed the outcome was the doctor's fault, instead of being one of the known risk factors of the treatment. But in their memory, no one had warned them about that.
A number railed about "the old boys network" among doctors investigating ACC claims.
As common was the complaint that no one admitted the error or apologised for it.
Dr Roy believes doctors' inability to admit mistakes stems from the way they are trained.
"Doctors do duck for cover," he says. "We're brought up through medical school to believe we're invincible. We haven't learned to cope with failure within ourselves, let alone with someone else who is telling us we've failed.
"At the start of medical school the dean stood up and told us we were the cream of the cream."
Medical specialists demand their trainees be perfect, he says. The system does not encourage them to admit they are unsure and to seek advice.
He believes his childhood experiences have made him better at explaining to patients what they can expect from surgery and even what the hospital environment will be like.
Outgoing Health and Disability Commissioner Robyn Stent says insensitivity and poor communication were at the heart of most of the complaints she handled in the past five years.
Medical Association chairwoman Dr Pippa MacKay says communication skills are an important part of training.
But with New Zealand-trained doctors leaving for overseas and foreign-trained doctors taking their place, the problem is exacerbated.
Robyn Stent wants to see communication and cultural understanding courses made compulsory for foreign-trained doctors.
But where does that leave brilliant medical minds who lack interpersonal skills?
"Person-to-person skills are very important," says Dr Roy. "If you're not good at it, be a technician."
By Bevan Roy
Bevan Roy was eight years old when a grommet operation left him deaf in his right ear.
His family could not claim medical misadventure because his hearing test records disappeared from Rotorua Hospital and they could not prove it was fine before the operation.
At 14 he suffered a stress-related
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