THE PLAYS

Hear Me

By Alan Hopgood

“Hear Me” deals with the aftermath of a young patient’s death from the perspective of the patient’s mother, the CEO, the supervising doctor and his colleague. This is followed by a discussion to examine the potential for improving the quality and safety of healthcare through communication, partnerships between patients, families and health professionals and staff culture. This is a powerful and innovative play that examines all the complex issues that arise when things go wrong in health care.

AIPFCC in partnership with the Centre for Health Communication at UTS engaged renowned playwright, Alan Hopgood to write a play to engage people with the tricky issues that occur as part of incident disclosure.

“Hear Me” premiered in Sydney on October 4th 2012 at the 1st International Incident Disclosure Conference to much acclaim and subsequent discussion.  This play has now been performed in 85 hospitals around Australia and seen by more than 6000 people

Written by Alan Hopgood in collaboration with Dr Catherine Crock and Prof Rick Idema  and others from the Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

Starring Lee Mason , Marcella Russo, Jenny Seedsman, and Alan Hopgood.

Each time I see Alan Hopgood’s powerful, complex and content rich play ”Hear Me” I realise more and more how simple things such as an inflection on the voice, a particular body stance or simply a doctors bad handwriting , can lead to an escalation of events with disastrous consequences. No textbook, learned article or lecture could ever capture what the drama of “Hear Me” has achieved in bringing to us an understanding of truly patient centred care.

Barbara Yeoh, Chair Monash Health