A Ninewells Hospital surgeon wants to create a better environment in which patients can learn about their cancer diagnosis.
Mr Ghulam Nabi, a consultant urological surgeon, said that in a busy clinic patients can be given a diagnosis and five minutes later be out in the corridor, with the consultation ended.
Talking to people who have gone through the experience, he has been inspired to try to raise £500,000 to create a sound proofed room where patients with prostate and other urological cancers can go and find information about their condition.
Ultimately, Mr Nabi wants to raise millions of pounds to create an institute of urology at Ninewells to undertake research and ensure the best possible treatment for people with cancers of the prostate, bowel and kidney.
“This is an ongoing process,” he said. “I hope we will get there one day.”
With an interest in education, his first goal is to create a “patient information room” where people can go and watch a DVD about their disease and treatment options. There would be leaflets and books and computers, giving a choice of the best way to access the information for individual needs.Diagnosis”In future if patients come to the clinic and get a diagnosis of cancer they will be able to go to the patient information room and sit there for half an hour or however long they wish.”
He said the idea was also that patients could return when it suited them to sit down and absorb the information and seek answers to questions they may not have thought of during the initial shock of diagnosis.
Carnoustie man Allan Torz is backing Mr Nabi’s plans in fact, he is one of the patients who inspired Mr Nabi to want to create a patient information room.
At the end of last year Mr Nabi performed keyhole surgery on Mr Torz, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. At the moment the former manager of the Cyrenians homeless hostel in Dundee is cancer free, though he has to attend for regular hospital check-ups.
Mr Torz is critical of the way the news of his cancer was broken to him and has a very personal understanding of why a patient information room is wanted.
“A nurse told me I had cancer,” said Mr Torz. “She was looking at a form. She was not even looking at me when she told me.”