Driven to distraction

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1203

BMJ 2003;327:1203 (22 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1203

Filler

Driven to distraction

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

One day, I met Derek by chance in the village. He was an acquaintancewhom I had met over village activities—the plant salesin aid of the church, and a mutual interest in carpentry thatled to a village exhibition. Just odd occasions, and this wasno exception. Except that this time I was shaken by his responseto my routine query: "How are you?"

"Not too bad, but I've just started a course of radiotherapy."

Further discussion revealed that he was at the eighth treatmentof 38. A major concern was the erratic timing of transport toand from the hospital—the long waits for other patientsto finish their treatments and the labyrinthine trips throughthe countryside to pick up and deliver the other patients sharingthe same transport. He finished: "I seem to spend the wholeweek travelling to and from treatment." (The centre is only18 miles . . . [Full text of this article]

Hamish Cole, retired radiotherapist

Rodney Stoke, Somerset