FEW doubt that health professionals, working within an increasingly overstretched and underfunded NHS, have it easy. Many of them go above and beyond to deliver high-quality care, despite the growing pressures under which the system is operating.

But amid the constant demands and organised chaos that is the NHS, it is all too easy to ignore, or fail to appreciate, patients’ experiences of illness and their wisdom gained from suffering. Caring is not the same as understanding and hearing does not necessarily equate to listening.

Author of The Patient Revolution David Gilbert is the first patient-director to be appointed within the NHS and in this book he reveals how much patients can bring to the table through gems of wisdom forged within the “caves of suffering” and how they can share their knowledge and experiences with health professionals and fellow patients to the benefit of all.