It’s a prevalent and largely true fact that doctors have a pretty tough life, with their duty calling at any time of the day. Very often we see articles written about Doctors’ plight, about how patients’ senseless questions haunt them, about how they have to compromise with their personal lives, etc.
But I am writing about the other side of Doctors, which says about the frustration and agony that one experiences on visiting doctors. This is on the basis of what I noticed and experienced over the last one month, which was full of visits to doctors to get my left toe treated.
There are a lot of complaints against doctors. But unlike customers to any other service industry, patients cannot be impatient, and they cannot bargain with the doctor. Whatever the doctor says, prescribes, is God’s word.
1) Doctors value their own time over the value of patients’ time. No patient likes to arrive on time for an appointment, only to be left waiting for half an hour or longer. This way the patients’ frustrations only grow stronger.
2) Doctors often rush through the appointments, not even listening properly and leaving too little time for a constructive conversation. They cut the patients short when they are speaking, ignore what patients tell, and rely on charts instead of preferred one-to-one communication.
3) Doctors often preemptively mix-up and generalize the patients’ cases with some other previous case histories, and lump them with the generalist prescription only to regret later and correct the mistake.
4) Unnecessary prescriptions, be it for medicines/drugs or laboratory tests, is what most doctors give. For them, it is a means of showing how learned they are. But another reason is that most doctors are entrapped in a vicious circle of gifts and inducements. (Thankfully, the law has now started prohibiting such transactions between doctors and other related medical/pharmacy agencies.) But eventually it hits mostly at the pockets of the patients, instead of the disease or ailment.
This all at times makes me question, that what is it that Doctors don’t know? And the immediate answer which comes to me is ‘Almost Everything’. It is high time they realise this.
But I am writing about the other side of Doctors, which says about the frustration and agony that one experiences on visiting doctors. This is on the basis of what I noticed and experienced over the last one month, which was full of visits to doctors to get my left toe treated.
There are a lot of complaints against doctors. But unlike customers to any other service industry, patients cannot be impatient, and they cannot bargain with the doctor. Whatever the doctor says, prescribes, is God’s word.
1) Doctors value their own time over the value of patients’ time. No patient likes to arrive on time for an appointment, only to be left waiting for half an hour or longer. This way the patients’ frustrations only grow stronger.
2) Doctors often rush through the appointments, not even listening properly and leaving too little time for a constructive conversation. They cut the patients short when they are speaking, ignore what patients tell, and rely on charts instead of preferred one-to-one communication.
3) Doctors often preemptively mix-up and generalize the patients’ cases with some other previous case histories, and lump them with the generalist prescription only to regret later and correct the mistake.
4) Unnecessary prescriptions, be it for medicines/drugs or laboratory tests, is what most doctors give. For them, it is a means of showing how learned they are. But another reason is that most doctors are entrapped in a vicious circle of gifts and inducements. (Thankfully, the law has now started prohibiting such transactions between doctors and other related medical/pharmacy agencies.) But eventually it hits mostly at the pockets of the patients, instead of the disease or ailment.
This all at times makes me question, that what is it that Doctors don’t know? And the immediate answer which comes to me is ‘Almost Everything’. It is high time they realise this.
Aww..i thnk u shud read Doctors by Eric Segal..
ReplyDeleteu'l get answer fr ur cmplains..