Consultant with something to write home about
A consultant in Infectious Diseases and Acute Medicine has won an international essay prize highlighting the experience of patients with tuberculosis in London.
Dr Padmasayee Papineni won the annual Wakley Prize for her emotive piece that follows the work of outreach support worker Ahmed Yassin who visits patients to encourage them to take their TB medication as well as highlighting the support the TB team.
Dr Papineni said,: “I was motivated to write this essay highlighting our patients’ experiences to illustrate the deepening health inequalities that have resulted from political failures, despite living in one of the richest economies globally.
“I am often struck by holistic acts of kindness that my colleagues show to patients providing strength and encouragement for overcoming the challenge of tuberculosis illness and treatment.”
The theme of this year’s Wakley Prize was compassion and connection in medicine. It is organised The Lancet, one of the oldest medical journals in the world.
You can read Dr Papineni’s essay here.