Examentrainers

Trust me, I’m a patient

A few years ago, my friend Jack went home to		The consumer,[id:19375], has obligations: politeness
Cornwall for his father’s funeral. His father		or at least civility, cleanliness, and the willingness
had been the local GP and the church was packed.		to try the treatment administered. As one GP in an
Afterwards, the mourners queued to express their		NHS practice in south London says: ¡®I am here to
condolences to Jack and his sister: one man		treat any patient on my list. But it is a lot easier to
explained that he had come because the doctor had		do it properly if they keep their side of the bargain.
delivered his three children and four grandchildren;		I expect them to be punctual, sober and clean, to
a woman told them that she owed their father her		answer my questions politely and honestly and then
life because he’d made her stop drinking; a couple		to take my advice seriously.’
remembered how the doctor had climbed out of bed		Some patients take their health very seriously
one Christmas Eve to rush to their infant’s bedside		indeed. They step into the surgery armed with
because they feared a chest infection had turned		facts, figures, and Lancet articles. Few doctors can
into pneumonia.		keep up with them. One woman I know, after her
Jack’s father was [id:19367]. The once familiar		hysterectomy, asked her doctor about post-op
figure of the beloved GP whose skills have cured		treatments available. He shrugged and coughed and
generations and whose devotion to his patients		could think of nothing. That same day, she got onto
(never clients) meant he spent his life rushing from		the internet and found a self-help website, with
housecall to housecall has become a memory.		post-op advice and treatments, and tips from other
Equally, few GPs today would expect the respect		women who had had hysterectomies. One entry,
and veneration which Jack’s father enjoyed among		she noticed, had been contributed by a nurse who
his peers. Today’s GP, and the relationship he or		worked in her GP’s practice, and yet he had not so
she has with their patients today, is altogether		much as taken notice of [id:19376].
different.		This new breed of patient must prove daunting to
A survey published last week by Reader’s Digest		GPs. When the doctor was seen as a wise
casts some light on how doctors [id:19368] their		paterfamilias, whose role was to scold and support
patients. Of the 200 GPs who took part, half said		the recalcitrant child-patient, too many of us
they would like to tell their patients to wash before		dropped our intelligence and spirit of inquiry when
coming to see them; two-thirds want to tell them		we set foot in the surgery. The healers were
that they’re too fat and about half do not believe		sacrosanct, their prescriptions [id:19377]. Mute and
their patients take the medication they recommend.		docile as children cowed by father’s caning,
It’s not exactly heartwarming: GPs sound		patients did their medic’s bidding.
seriously frustrated and disillusioned in their		Today, this blind trust in authority has given way
dealings with us. Are we, the patients, to blame? Or		to wary suspicion. Whether it be the doctor, the
are we finally reacting to centuries of their superior		teacher, the priest, we question those who [id:19378]
attitude towards the layman? Did the rot set in		any aspect of our life. What right has my doctor to
when the medical profession was forced into a		say my snoring is a result of heavy smoking and
marketplace mentality, with our health as the		obesity?
product, doctors the providers, ourselves the		This rejection of authority can prove as harmful
[id:19369]?		as blind obedience to every dictate issued by the
Commercialisation can go too far. A doctor’s		doctor. If we discount everything our GPs tell us, if
surgery is not a shop. When we buy a gizmo at		we treat them with dislike or disrespect, can we
Dixons, we give nothing more than our money. But		expect them to have our well-being at heart? Yes,
when we visit a doctor, she cannot heal us unless		we, the patients, need to take an active part in our
we [id:19371] about our symptoms (the embarrassing		health - we can no longer approach medical terms
itch, the persistent cough) and our habits (how		as if they were an obscure Cantonese dialect and
much we smoke or drink and just how much butter		our bodily functions as if they were obscenities at a
we like to spread over our toast), nor can she help		tea party. But in establishing active interest in
us unless we are committed to following the		[id:19381], we cannot elbow out those trained to
treatment she prescribes.		safeguard it.

The Observer