General News
24 May, 2026
Call the doctor: Caring beyond the diagnosis
This fortnight I have the privilege of sharing a reflective piece written by Camilla Butler on her experience as a second year medical student. It speaks for itself:
The further along I get in my studies the more confused I get.
Not from a content perspective but by the growing awareness of how fine the line of life really is.
There is so much that has to go right to be healthy, while the smallest misfold of a protein can tip the balance of health in the wrong direction.
From this, I have begun to see the distinction between the mind and body.
Because at the end of the day, we are all just a collection of organs that somehow work together to achieve the ultimate goal, survival.
However, saying that, a disease can take away your kidneys, but it cannot take away how loved you are or how respected you might be.
It is your experiences, what you want to achieve and how you chose to look at the world that makes you who you are – the mind.
Like a master puppeteer hidden behind the skull, the brain pulls the strings that keep the body in balance.
It speaks in flashes of pain when we’re injured, a sharp telling off not to repeat the same mistake and quietly orchestrates the body’s defence against disease, always working to restore harmony within.
While the destiny of all human tissue is the development of cancer and the weight of luck is upon whether we live long enough for our environmental and genetic codes to unravel ties, there comes a time when doctors are called upon to defy biology.
During medical school, we are taught to navigate the intricate pathways of the body—how to diagnose, treat, and restore physical health.
Yet, alongside this, I have become increasingly aware of a quieter, equally important responsibility: the need to care for the patient’s mind.
A doctor may not always be able to alter the course of a disease, but they can profoundly influence how a person experiences it.
If a doctor is able to positively change how a person sees the world, even with disease, it can change how much life that person may live within that time.
To truly care for a person is to recognise that the mind and body are inseparable.
I have begun to appreciate the power of words in clinical practice—the way they can comfort, empower or heal in ways that medicine alone cannot.
After all, when a scalpel cannot cure, a surgeon’s most powerful instrument is often their words.