Thursday, June 18, 2009

dr. know none


Please don’t think this is about a quack or someone who finished his medical degree in a far off land with nothing but a stylish name to boast off or about someone who did his MBBS for such along time, that his son would be of the same age as his study duration!! Nor is it about someone so senile with severe cognitive impairment! It is about a not so young radiologist in his late twenties, who interned out of a reasonable medical college and postgraduate institute and his travails!

Problems come in various forms for a radiologist. Lots of case than one can handle, continuous inflow of sick and trauma patients, having to talk to referring consultants in between and emergency ultrasounds when ones hands are already full are the possible scenarios that can crack you up! All these are inescapable situations for a radiologist; but one thing that is avoidable, but problematic is the situation when the patients insist on talking to you. Though I feel that every radiologist has a duty in explaining to the patients, the test of the results, at least if the patients insist. But I most of the times , avoid directly dealing with patients, as when you try to explain medical problems in lay mans language , there definitely is a chance for inappropriate perception of the problem by the patients. But there are some persistent patients who wont take no for an answer!

One such north Indian gentle man had come to collect his MR report I had reported the previous day. Being busy that evening, I was in no mood to spare my time. But the Hindi speaking people, quite persistent as they are a lot of times, got in saying he will only take a couple of minutes. He had diffuse disc bulges at a couple of levels; I just told him that and expected him to leave hearing that . But he wanted me to explain the management and in spite of my reluctance to do so , he just kept trying to pull some words out of my mouth. I just told him that it could be either conservative or surgical and most of the time doctors try conservative treatment before resorting to surgical options. But the gentle man- I don’t know whom he wanted to stump – me or the orthopedician- seems to have told the ortho doctor straightaway that he had discussed his problem with the radiologist (my name specifically) and that he did not need any surgery . The doctor who had probably put him in his list as a prospective surgical candidate was pretty annoyed that he sent a message to my MD, asking him to restrain his radiologists from talking to his patients. Though my MD didn’t say anything directly to me, I got the message through someone!

I felt done in by both the patient and the referring doctor – both were not courteous enough to me- the doctor at least could have sorted out the matter with me! But these things keep happening and you don’t expect any decency and courtesy from those who rob their patients while sending for investigation (what else would I call those who get more than half of the cost of tests as referral charges. After a small wave of frustration and anger , I resigned to my fate and thought that the best way to respond is to act like Dr. know none , asking the patients to talk with their referring doctors , who know what is best for their patients (more so for their own pockets)

God save the patients from a lot of these money hungry crocs( sorry docs)!!

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