Iona Heath, past president of the RCGP, talks further about how we handle death during the pandemic. She expresses concern at the blanket exclusion of relatives as people die from COVID-19 and how we are handling it in the current crisis. She worries we will see a “legacy of traumatic bereavements” and the importance of touch in dying and of human love.
Death, dying, and love with Iona Heath
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[…] There are numerous reports of patients dying alone, their loved ones banned from the ward. In this interview, Iona Heath explores how damaging this sudden change in culture around death could be. When this is […]
Iona retired early from practicing medicine but constantly gets invited to speak at evens like this – why? how? She only says the blindingly obvious and frankly anoys those on the coal face.
I think it’s because what she says is thoughtful and often unsaid by others. It’s often the “blindingly obvious” which is so easily overlooked by our profession and by our politicians. Far from annoying me, Iona Heath often manages to put into words what many of us have been thinking but haven’t managed to express as succinctly or eloquently as she does. This thoughtful interview is striking in its simplicity – yet its message is still clearly being overlooked by so many of us. Keep talking Iona…….