The Cost of Not Listening: How Medical Silencing Harms Patients with Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan

What happens when clinicians stop hearing the very people they’re trying to help?

In this episode, Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan, a Consultant Physician in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and Deputy Director of the SHARE Collaborative at Queen Mary University of London, discusses how patients are often disbelieved or dismissed in healthcare. She shares her own experience of being ignored during a painful hospitalization, which revealed how difficult it can be for even a senior doctor to speak up when vulnerable. Dhairyawan argues that medicine has a long-standing culture of skepticism toward patient testimony, which harms trust, exacerbates inequities, and undermines care. She urges systemic and educational reforms, more time, continuity, staff wellbeing, training in true listening, and structural support for patient voices. While acknowledging resource constraints, she emphasizes that listening is both therapeutic and essential to restoring humanity in healthcare.

Tune in to hear Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan unpack why patients often feel unheard, and how listening might be healthcare’s most powerful, yet overlooked, tool.

Resources

• Connect with and follow Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan on LinkedIn and visit her website!
• Follow Barts Health NHS Trust on LinkedIn and explore their website!
• Follow Queen Mary University of London on LinkedIn and discover their website!
• Check out Dr. Dhairyawan’s book, Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing, here!

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