DR SOUMEN SAHA HIGHLIGHTS THE PROFOUND IMPACT OF PALLIATIIVE CARE AT ELLENOR, URGING RECOGNITION FOR THE SPECIALITY

Why does someone decide to become a doctor?

For 48-year-old Dr Soumen Saha – Consultant in Palliative Medicine at ellenor, a hospice charity which provides care and support for patients with life-limiting illnesses, and their families, throughout Kent and Bexley – there were several reasons.

His parents, for one. “They came over with relatively nothing, despite having university and masters degrees in the arts” says Soumen, who was born in Lambeth to Bengali parents, “and it was always their dream for me to do something professional, like go into medicine. But also, I didn’t rebel against it – and I rebelled against lots of things they suggested!”

Another reason? Soumen, as a child, was diagnosed with a condition called adrenal insufficiency, and put on a lifelong course of steroid therapy. “My paediatrician, Professor John Scopes, saved my life as a baby, and continued to help me as a young boy. I idolised him.”

And, it was paediatrics Soumen initially gravitated towards – but it wasn’t for him. After trying out different branches of medicine through rotations, and stints in both District General and Specialist hospitals, Soumen settled on his speciality – palliative medicine.

Remembering the accessible, down-to-earth bedside manner of his hero, Professor Scopes, Soumen wanted to be in a role – and in a discipline – which would allow him to have a similarly positive, impactful influence on his patients. And palliative medicine (a type of patient-oriented, family care for people with progressive, advanced life-limiting illness) allowed for that.

“In A & E, we never had the time to spend with people after trauma. I remember trying to resuscitate an 18-year-old boy, who ended up dying after being in a car accident – I had only five minutes with his mum to tell her what happened. That felt wrong to me. I knew I needed to be in a role where I could spend time talking to people, and doing ‘the essence of doctoring’ – and by that, I mean communicating.”

Communication is, after all, something Soumen sees as the central axis around which his role at ellenor revolves. “I see my role as tying it all together,” he says: “Someone there to communicate clearly between the medical team, the nursing team, and all the other disciplines within the hospice. It’s my role to make sure messages are passed on with clarity and consistency and ensure that communication goes smoothly. Which can be a lot more complicated than it appears!”

As a leading voice on ellenor’s Northfleet-based inpatient ward (though he also works, when required, from patients’ homes within the Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley communities including care homes, Soumen is also responsible for guiding and mentoring the junior doctors. “To ask questions,” he says, “– not in a micromanagement way, but to help them understand why we’re doing something, and what we expect to happen if we do so or not.

“It’s not my job to dictate, but to guide, to steer; to lead from a medical standpoint.”

Soumen, who has been at ellenor three months, arrives off the back of 17 years in palliative medicine. Yet, he’s the first to acknowledge that palliative medicine can be hard. It’s a discipline in which you can’t, after all, cure people – which is one of the reasons many people become doctors in the first place.

So what keeps him doing what he does?

“Watching someone who’s been in agony become settled and comfortable, and seeing a smile on their face? There are few more rewarding things than that. Families remember you – you might bump into them in the shop, for example – and they remember you. You don’t get many specialities in which that happens, but it happens a lot in palliative care. And to me, that’s priceless.”

What’s more, Soumen believes that palliative medicine is the one speciality in which doctors are trained to celebrate something far too many doctors don’t, or aren’t able to, celebrate – themselves.

“As healthcare professionals, we are trained to be perfectionists, constantly under immense pressure to avoid errors, to be fearful of failure; to be relieved, rather than proud or happy, when things go well. Let’s say we receive feedback that’s 97% positive, and 3% that isn’t so good – it’s the critical 3% we’ll remember. We can be excessively hard on ourselves: which is good to a degree, but there must be a balance. It’s those small gestures – perhaps an email from a colleague, or an expression of gratitude from a patient or their loved one – that get you through the day or week. These moments mean a lot, but unfortunately, we’re not trained to celebrate them as much as we should. But if there’s one speciality where you are trained to celebrate that, it’s palliative care.”

Yet palliative medicine is, Soumen acknowledges, still undervalued and underfunded – if not all that understood. For instance, ellenor received only 28% funding from the government last year, and it must raise around £7 million, each year, through the generosity of its local Kent and Bexley communities alone.

One reason for this, as Soumen points out, is that many people simply don’t realise the kind of value hospices like ellenor offer.

“A lot of people have an alien understanding of what palliative medicine is – I’ve met people that think it involves monks standing around a bed, chanting! But once people do come into a hospice like ours here at ellenor, they realise that the idea is to enable people to live their best life, rather than be focused solely on dying. What matters most here is the approach. As well as the quality of care and time spent, the positivity and accessibility there. That can be a surprise.”

So – what might a career in palliative medicine offer you?

“I know it seems a little clichéd, but here at ellenor, the opportunity to make a tangible, heartfelt difference to people’s lives is real and profound. There’s a real opportunity to connect with people, to truly engage with individuals and their families during their most vulnerable moments and to leave a lasting impact as a doctor or nurse.

“Of all the specialities I’ve experienced, I find palliative medicine to be the most rewarding.  It’s not just about medical treatment; it’s about enriching the lives of patients and their families in deeply significant ways. You might find it to be your calling, too.”