My friend Tessa Richards, who has died of cancer aged 75, was a doctor and medical editor who campaigned indomitably for patients to be partners equal with doctors in healthcare. In addition, she transformed the relationship that the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), where she worked for 40 years, had with patients.
When Tessa graduated in medicine from Guy’s hospital medical school in London in 1973, doctors dominated patients, and did what they thought best for them. There was no culture of patients being equal partners, and doctors discussing options with them. As Tessa wrote in 1990: “Even the briefest spell on the other side of the desk or in a hospital bed gives blinding insight into patients’ vulnerability and of their need to be listened to, treated with respect, and given full, unhurried, jargon-free explanations.” Nor were patients involved in the planning of care, and in medical research they were subjects, not partners.
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