On being a patient

Those who practise medicine should remember that we are all patients at some time, most likely at the beginning and end of our lives. Therefore, this textbook begins with an account of encounters with the medical and nursing professions, written by an outstanding doctor, medical historian, and leading clinical scientist. After a highly distinguished and eventful career which spanned the introduction of the British National Health Service in 1948, Christopher Booth died in 2012, aged 87 years. Latterly, he experienced the protracted misery of illness punctuated by repeated surgery; but to the end he retained his intellect and penetrating wit. His piquant observations are a challenge to us all as we try to provide care for our patients, as is his parting shot: ‘If you are a physician, no matter how important you may think that you are, you should, so far as your own illnesses are concerned, consider yourself a layman.’