This Tom London story makes me sad on so many levels. Sad for the dying man who lost all his dignity at the hands of his supposed carers. Sad for the thousands of others who have died in a similar manner. Sad because there is truth to it. Sad because I have witnessed this kind of bad behaviour first hand. Sad because I have seen colleagues lose their humanity. Sad for the doctor that Tom London named and shamed; who sounds like he was writing exams. Sad for the family of the dying man he caught on video. Sad for all the people in the comments who have had similar experiences. Sad for my colleagues who have now been labelled as “evil” based on the actions of a handful of junior colleagues. Sad for the doctors who watch people die in conditions like this on a daily basis. Sad because, while there are doctors who don’t care, in reality the majority of those who work in the public sector are good and kind and probably care too much. Sad for the state of mental health amongst government-employed doctors. Sad for my colleagues who have taken their own lives over these issues. Sad because this story doesn’t talk about the doctors who have been spat on, been called a bitch, been physically assaulted by the people they are trying to help. Sad for a former colleague who lost her eye at the hands of a patient’s violence. Sad for a friend who was stalked and threatened by the family of a patient she tried to save but failed. Sad for the thousands of brilliant doctors who are fully qualified and unemployed because the government has run it’s budgets into the ground. Sad for the sacrifices made in the name of putting patient-care first. Sad for the hours spent at home, unpaid, checking patients’ results, writing emails on their behalf, advocating. Sad for all the birthdays and Christmas’s and Eids and weddings missed because someone has to fill a roster. Sad because the doctors making these rosters often forget that their junior colleagues are humans too. Sad for the colleague who was denied family responsibility leave to attend to his dying father. Sad that he was forced to leave his father’s funeral early and report for a night shift. Sad for the hundreds of thousands of doctors in the public sector who chose this life instead of one that pays far better. Sad for the hundreds of thousands of doctors who are trying to do the best they can in a system that is not breaking, but is broken. Sad because this story has become more about a small group of doctors’ attitudes and less about recognizing the bigger problem – that our government has failed it’s people (patients and doctors alike). And sad because it is the public servants who are at the front of this mess and bare all the blame.

Sad that we seem to have forgotten that before we were doctors or patients, we were all human first.