Everyone gets to be a patient sooner or later. Almost everyone has some experience of being misunderstood by doctors; encounters with difficult doctors; of relationships burdened with mutual bafflement, hostility and pain.Every doctor is haunted by memories of difficult relationships with patients, of the decisions made, and the outcomes that followed. People whom, despite all of their patience, persistence, the best communication, diagnostic and reasoning skills, they haven't helped. People for whose unique suffering it seems medicine has nothing to offer.Dr. Peter Dorward explores the many ethical dilemmas that GPs must face every day, to explain why it is that despite vast resources, time, skill and dedication, medicine is so often destined to fail. His recollections include his worst failures and biggest challenges, ranging from the everyday, the tragic, the grotesque, the villainous and the humorous. The Human Kind presents a fresh understanding of the difficult relationship between doctor and patient, and the challenges which both must face.

Practising GP offers a general practitioner perspective/voice to the literature (tends to be surgeons/consultants writing)

Introduction: A Private GardenI Just Want to Help you to DieThe Problem of Alicia's SmileHow to be GoodThe Real Karlo PistazjaThe Words to Say ItShangalangThree Views of a MountainOpiates are the Opiate of the People: Part 1When Darkness FallsThe Ghost in the MachineOpiates are the Opiate of the People: Part 2Notes on sourcesAcknowledgements