Kate Chisholm

Word perfect | 12 January 2017

Plus: remembering the Kosovan civil war and the genius of Bowie

All that’s needed for Radio 4’s One to One series (Tuesdays) to succeed is a sharp-eyed interviewer, ready with the right question at the right time, and an articulate guest, not afraid to speak freely and openly, but with integrity, all too rare these days. In the opening programme, Julia Bradbury talked to Dr Martin McKechnie, an A&E consultant, about the challenges he faces day in day out. It was a timely reminder that not everything in the NHS is broken beyond repair. Most striking, perhaps, was not so much Dr McKechnie’s calm fortitude in the face of terrible human distress (remarkable thoughthis was) but the way he casually dismissed the idea of talking about his work with his family. Why would anyone outside the hospital be interested in him moaning about what a terrible day he may have had?No whingeing, then, but rather a clear-eyed understanding of what his job involvesand an ability to withstand the demands of its responsibilities. Sometimes, he explained, doing nothing, allowing someone to die, is in the patient’s best interest, sparing them pain and/or indignity. ‘You have to be honest,’ he insisted. ‘You cannot lie.’

Even more extraordinary was the offhand way he revealed something about himself. After telling us that one ofhis most awful experiences was to have had to make the decision to stop resuscitating a young couple of doctor colleagues who had been involved in a fatal car crash on their way home from the hospital, brought back by ambulance just an hour afterfinishing their shift, and that his most recent challenge happened a few days before when he had to perform an emergency tracheotomy, not having done one for years, he said simply and matter-of-factly that a couple of years ago he’dbroken his neck and several bones in his back in a cycling accident.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in