Listen to the patient, [they are] telling you the diagnosis”. So said William Osler, the “father of modern medicine”. It is a rule that is not always followed.
The principles and practices of medicine stand proudly on a vast evidence base. It is how patients are kept safe. Doctors are human and make mistakes — but that is exactly why their job is so formalised, full of protocol, double checking, constant reference to textbooks, studies and each other.
