AUDIO SCRIPTS
172
S3:
Well, thanks very much. You’ve really been
helpful. I think I’m ready to make a start now.
L:
No problem, I hope it helps.
LESSON 4.1 RECORDING 4.1
Well, yes, there is certainly a lot of
training and it takes a long time to become
qualified. There’s a lot to learn. You do
need to be good at science, there’s no doubt
about that. Oh, and not mind the sight
of blood! Seriously though, I think many
people forget that it is after all a job about
people, and being able to deal with people.
There is a very human side to being a good
doctor. It’s a sociable job. For me … well,
I try to make a real effort to engage with
patients, simple things like remembering
names. Some of my colleagues think I
spend too long with patients, and that I’m
not efficient. Sometimes it can be difficult
with certain cases – you know we call them
hypochondriacs – they like to come to
the doctor, but are not really ill. It can be
difficult to be sympathetic sometimes, as
they are time wasters, and doctors are busy
people, you know!
Some doctors go a lot further and like to lecture
people about their lifestyles. I don’t think you
can do that too much, but you can chat to
patients and find out what is going on in their
lives. It is a good idea to be open-minded as
far as treatments are concerned. I’m constantly
surprised by what does and doesn’t work with
different patients. Some patients respond to
treatments which have no effect on others.
In my experience, some of the alternative
treatments really do work and doctors should
consider them, although western science is
sometimes still very sceptical.
One thing I do feel, is that doctors today
need to think about money. You can’t just
keep giving out tablets and medicine all
the time. They are very expensive. Another
thing which …
LESSON 4.2 RECORDING 4.3
We are doing our best to help save lives
here but sometimes it feels as if we have
one hand tied behind our backs. We
desperately need new drugs. The malaria
parasite has become resistant to most of
the existing drugs on the market so they are
becoming less and less effective. It isn’t only
malaria though. Dengue fever is another
killer, as are yellow fever and polio.
I know that companies are developing new
drugs, but they are incredibly expensive. For
example, the drug we usually give to people
suffering from malaria costs about 30 cents.
A newer, more effective treatment can cost
up to $11. It is heartbreaking knowing that
a solution to the problem exists but that a
lack of funds means that people are dying
unnecessarily. I’m not blaming the drug
companies. I understand that it costs a
fortune to develop new medicines and, if
they were forced to sell them at a rate that
people here could afford, the drugs simply
wouldn’t exist in the first place.
That’s why I think international
organisations should take a more active
role in helping people. The World Health
Organisation, the World Bank, the EU and
other organisations could do two things.
First, in the short term, they could actually
pay for the medicines we need. More
importantly, they should be working in
partnership with universities in order to
develop their own treatments. They could
produce and distribute them themselves at
a much lower cost than private companies
can offer.
Even better would be to develop a vaccine
so that people don’t get ill in the first place.
I know research into this has been going
on for many years and one day, a vaccine
will be created. My worry is that, when that
happens, the people who need it won’t be
able to afford it.
LESSON 4.2 RECORDING 4.4
J = Jan T = Tom S = Susan
J:
So, Tom, you’re in charge of arrangements.
Can you give us the details?
T:
Sure, Jan. All the support team are flying out
to Kampala at 5 p.m. on Friday. We are flying
from Heathrow. We’re all meeting at check-in
at 3 p.m. Everyone has been emailed and all
the arrangements have been made.
J:
Thanks, Tom. OK, Susan, how’s it going
with the support team in Uganda?
S:
Well, they’ve purchased half a million
mosquito nets and these are the long lasting
insecticide-treated nets.
J:
Great. And what’s happening with the
celebrities?
S:
The Ugandan team will be waiting for the
celebrities in the hotel reception on Monday
morning at 9 a.m. when the celebrity bus
arrives.
J:
So the Ugandan team are getting to the
hotel at nine?
S:
No they’ll be there before nine.
J:
OK. Good.
S:
Then we’ll be filming the celebrity interviews
for the fundraising appeal all Monday
morning and then we’ll be distributing the first
batch of mosquito nets with the celebrities on
Monday afternoon. Tom and I will be working
in Uganda all next month, helping with the
distribution of the rest of the nets.
J:
Great. And what are the celebrities doing?
S:
Some of the celebrities are going to spend a
few days sightseeing, but no arrangements
have been made yet.
J:
Well, everything’s looking good … and
based on the money we’ve raised so far and
the support we’ve had, I think we’re going
to raise a lot more money than last year.
LESSON 4.3 RECORDING 4.5
1
Well, in terms of sight, I think 100 years from
now we will probably have a genetic way to
fix diabetes, which is the number one cause
of blindness in this country. And as diabetes
accounts for 10% of the health budget, it’s a
good area for researchers to focus on. I also
think we’ll have succeeded in preventing some
eye diseases – maybe with a pill. I think we’ll
definitely be able to transplant the optic nerve
and the area at the back of the eye and will
possibly be able to clone eyes from skin cells.
People ask me if scientists will make a bionic
man or woman soon. Well, they have already
made a bionic eye.
2
By 2120, engineers will have developed a
‘smart suit’, or a sort of special ‘airbag’ … and
when you’re skiing or doing other vigorous
activities and you start to fall then the suit
would quickly adjust to help protect you.
3
I believe that in the not too distant future,
scientists will have created personal virtual
computer models that will be constantly
updated to record injuries, accidents or
diseases or illnesses that you suffer from. It will
be kept in cyberspace and your doctor will
probably be able to access it from anywhere in
the world. I also think they will have invented
tiny robots that you swallow which will
perform surgery. The robots would go right to
the problem area and use lasers or stitches or
produce a healing material which will help
patients recover from their injuries quickly.
4
I think cancer will be treated differently. Instead
of trying to totally destroy the cancer from the
outside, I think we will have found something
very small that can get into the cell. Mind you,
I think we’ll probably have a whole different set
of diseases that we’ll be worrying about. I agree
with those who say that cancer probably won’t
be a big problem in 100 years.
5
In terms of imaging technology, I guess that
in 100 years, three-dimensional imaging (and
I mean things like CAT scans and three-
dimensional ultra sound) will be huge. X-rays
and radiation will certainly not disappear
completely, but we will have found ways to
use lower amounts of radiation.
6
100 years …well, in 100 years people will
probably be living on other planets or out in
space. I think by then we will have developed
a way to protect astronauts from radiation
exposure, and those methods could be used
to help prevent damage in people exposed to
radiation and it will be easier to care for them.
LESSON 4.4 RECORDING 4.6
S = Sandra, H = Hans
S:
I know the doctor well, Hans, he’s very
popular with all his patients. He’s a good
listener, very sympathetic, knowledgeable,
up-to-date with treatments – just what you
want for a family doctor.
H:
Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard too. And he did
some great work for us when he was trialling
our new products for arthritis and diabetes.
We’ve used him a lot for our research – he’s
very reliable and writes good reports.
S:
We’ve got to be careful how we deal with
this. We want to support him, but we need
to look at the implications of doing it. If
we support him too strongly, the press may
get hold of the story. They’ll start digging
around and perhaps suggest we do this sort
of thing all the time, I mean, not informing
patients, using them as guinea pigs.
H:
Yeah, it could be really bad for our reputation.
What do you think we should do then?
S:
Well, I don’t know. I suppose we could
offer the patient some sort of financial
compensation and persuade her not to
make a fuss. But it’s a risky option. One
consequence could be she’ll start negotiating
with us. Asking for more cash. We don’t
want to get into that scenario, do we?
H:
No, we certainly don’t. How about if we
meet her, say we’re really sorry, and explain
that the doctor was trying to give her the
very best treatment available? We could
say it’s a wonderful drug and it’s had great
results in clinical trials. The doctor was very
busy at the time and he simply forgot to tell
her that the drug was still being trialled.
S:
It might work, but it has a serious disadvantage.
H:
Oh, what’s that?
S:
Well, will she believe it’s a wonder drug? It
seems she had some bad side effects when
she took it. She often felt dizzy and her
blood pressure went up. According to her,
she didn’t feel at all well.
