What Patients Actually Judge
A consultant neurologist on why delivering the medicine is the easy part, and why booking, communication, and follow-up decide how patients experience care.
Krista Farrell
Show notes
Krista Farrell is a consultant neurologist and clinical lead for neurology, and a member of Coherent's medical advisory board. She walks Jared through a day in an outpatient clinic: reading referral letters, taking a history, examining the patient, then the letters, tests, and follow-ups that come after.
Her point is simple. Delivering the medicine is the part she finds easiest. What patients actually notice is everything around it: whether they can book without twenty emails, whether their letter arrives on time, whether anyone answers when a treatment goes wrong.
She is candid about why change is slow. The technology to book in one click largely exists, but medicine is cautious by design, and adoption depends on trusted colleagues championing it. She also reflects on the administrative barriers that keep many clinicians, especially women, out of private practice.
Key takeaways
- Neurologists are physicians, not surgeons: they diagnose and treat with medication, spending much of a consultation taking a detailed history to locate the problem in the nervous system.
- Behind every clinic sits a team of administrators, patient pathway navigators, and medical secretaries, and a good secretary is integral to delivering a decent standard of care.
- Communication is the largest source of patient complaint: delayed letters, missing test results, and appointments that are hard to book or change.
- Asked how she would spend a million pounds on one fix, she chose one-click online booking to end the constant back-and-forth over appointment times.
- The technology for automated triage and booking largely exists, but adoption is slowed by a culture of caution rooted in patient safety and habit.
- When clinical quality is comparable, patients decide where to return based on the service around the care, much as diners judge two restaurants serving the same dish.
“The medicine side of it, delivering the care, is by far the easiest part.”— Krista Farrell
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