BY LISA NEW, 2026
conceptually designed by the author.
Yes, YOU who came to my bedside today,
how DARE you, a doctor, accuse me so,
state I want to be in hospital,
I’m putting on symptoms,
manipulate for expensive tests,
in application for NDIS?
How AWFUL of you to judge me so,
you who I’ve never met before.
You, a doctor, carer, healer,
who should do no harm.
I never usually shout, but I screamed at you,
STOP, LEAVE, GO,
YOU ARROGANT (so and so)!
You refused to leave until led away,
concerned nurses, patients,
while I cried in absolute FURY at you.
Your ARROGANCE and IGNORANCE on
display,
you showed yourself up for the ward to see.
I made sure hospital management acted,
Ryan’s Rule invoked,
formal complaint lodged,
your team replaced on the same day
(by a wonderful doctor next).
My illness is very complex,
invisible to the usual tests,
but I’m no less ill in a severe way,
than the others in this complex cohort,
and I require fair, compassionate care,
like any other patient of yours.
So, I beg of you, reflect:
STOP Think Learn, CHANGE your ‘play’,
for you made a BIG MISTAKE this day,
and HURT me deeply in an avoidable way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa New lives in Tropical Queensland, Australia, having emigrated via the UK from South Africa. Living with a number of diseases has led her to being home and bed bound since 2019, and she has recently found that writing poems to express complex emotions is a wonderful creative outlet and a relief valve. As past clinician and health researcher, she now identifies as lived experience expert patient in FND, ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, POTS, and more, and tries to, when she can, help make a difference through advocacy and resource development.
Post published 10/08/26
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