NEW RELEASE BOOK

Unheard:
The Medical Practice
of Silencing

Published 4th July 2024.

Have you ever felt unheard by your doctor?

When Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan was admitted to hospital as a patient she didn't receive the pain medication that she requested, despite her being senior doctor. It was in that moment she understood that something was deeply wrong with our healthcare system. Doctors aren't listening, and it is making us unwell.

In this book, Dr Dhairyawan takes us on a journey to show how not listening to patients has been ingrained in medicine since its inception. Western medicine has been built on the assumption that power should always lie with the doctor, and that patients should be powerless to decisions made about their bodies if they are made to make them well. This, alongside the prejudices of society, has led to dramatic gaps in medical knowledge.

Dr Dhairyawan offers a way to reshape our health system for a future where active and engaged listening is the new frontier.

A timely, shocking and engaging exposé of the medical world, this book is a much-needed prescription for change.

PRE ORDER

  • The book I’ve been longing to read. This is such a timely, vital exploration of the ways in which doctors can silence their patients and how this reinforces health inequalities. Dr Dhairyawan writes with great compassion, candour and a scalpel-sharp intellect. A brilliant, fascinating book.

    Dr Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking.

  • In Unheard, Dr Dhairyawan's experience and wisdom as both doctor and patient are brought to bear on one of the most pressing subjects of our day: how to access vital care and how to deliver it, and the often devastating consequences of silencing and misdirected power. This is a timely, necessary, indignant and ultimately compassionate book that should become required reading for medics, politicians and the public.

    Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent.

  • Accessibly written and deftly argued, Dhairyawan not only lays bare the shortcomings in our health system's culture, but offers solutions.

    Gary Younge, author of Dispatches from the Diaspora.

  • Dhairyawan is a powerful advocate for patients. Her compassion shines through in Unheard and is something we can all learn from. Unheard is a vital read that has the capacity to transform patient care. A must read for all those interested in improving health outcomes.

    Dr Annabel Sowemimo, author of Divided.

  • What a powerful book that made me reflect on my clinical practice. A must read to break the cycle of silence and shame that perpetuates to widen the knowledge gap and keep a nation sick.

    Dr Nighat Arif, author of The Knowledge.

  • Unheard embodies the truth of medical malpractice rooted in prejudice and discrimination.  Dr Rageshri does with Unheard what medicine does for the ailed. She cuts through the noise to the root cause and blows the lid off an open secret. If I had to read a book that reflects my experience as a Black woman devalued, dismissed, unlistened to in medicine but also gives me the tools of how to reclaim my power to be heard, it would be Unheard.

    Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu

  • Unheard is a vital prescription for health equity, with a clear and simple message: listen. Dr Dhairyawan skilfully bridges the long-standing divide between patients and their healthcare providers, calling for a more collaborative, respectful and empathic relationship between the two. I hope every healthcare professional reads it and feels inspired to radically rethink their practice.

    Sarah Graham, author of Rebel Bodies.

  • With Unheard Rageshri Dhairyawan shows how much medicine has lost its way when it fails to really hear the patient's story and points the way back to a better (as well as more effective) medical culture of listening.

    Dr Gavin Francis, author of Recovery

Books

No One Talks About This Stuff: Twenty-Two Stories of Almost Parenthood.

Edited by Kat Brown.

Rageshri has contributed an essay ‘Work In Progress’ to this anthology about her experiences of coming to terms with infertility and the importance of recognising both grief and resilience. No One Talks About This Stuff is a support group for almost-parents. A place to share their journeys of loss and limbo, to confront social pressure and to find courage in the darkness of tragedies which happen every day yet are brushed under the carpet.

So, we hear from a stepmother who wrestles with infertility. A husband and wife each tell their experience of losing their baby. A lesbian comes of age at a time when gay people rarely become parents. A father finds loss to be his unlikely superpower. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder impacts a person’s choices about having a family. A black woman unpacks ancestral shame while finding renewed purpose. And each person shares how they lived through it.

This captivatingly beautiful, profound and honest anthology opens a much-needed conversation about society, family and honouring the missing children we will never forget.

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Get in touch

Literary agent: 
Holly Faulks, Greene and Heaton
hfaulks@greeneheaton.co.uk