Not all doctors are interfering, judgemental busybodies
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 16:24 I had a hospital appointment this morning.
Nothing serious, although it did involve a camera! I discovered however that I have put on exactly one stone in weight since I went on a diet 18 months ago. Unfortunately, a few months after I began I found out how much nicer coffee is with double cream. Plus, there are only so many salads a man can eat without becoming a vegetable, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, what struck me (and not for the first time) is how non-judgemental most doctors and nurses are about 'bad' habits. I have been overweight for a decade (some might say two) and I can't remember a single doctor ever mentioning it to me.
Today was no different. They took my weight but didn't bat an eyelid, even when I asked them to convert kilos into something I could understand. When they asked me what I do for a living I told them. Again, not a murmur.
Of course, when you visit your GP these days they will most likely have to tick a few boxes – do you smoke, how much do you drink etc – but that's as far as it goes. In my experience they have never commented on my 'lifestyle' so who, exactly, does an organisation like the British Medical Association represent? Not ordinary doctors, that's for sure.
As for those doctors who support "lifestyle rationing", I'd like to know a bit more about them and where they work. Not in my local surgery or hospital.
PS. Rob Lyon has this to say on Spiked: The rationing of medical treatment is really sick.
Reader Comments (7)
Simon - having had my recent health MoT I found exactly the same thing. Asked if we had breast cancer in our family I replied yes - the only never smoker among us had it. Not a murmur from the doc.
When I signed up to the practice about five years ago they did ask if I smoked, how much I drank etc... and I said they could think what they liked but I refused to give details of my lifestyle habits on the grounds that I may be discriminated against at some point in the future - and that was true also about whether I climbed mountains or rode horses.
The doctor didn't bat an eyelid. He just smiled and said : "Not here, I can assure you." I've always found them fair but I do wonder what would happen further down the line should a medical record with "Smoker" stamped on it be presented to someone, or another practice, that doesn't take the same view?
I have come up against a particularly nasty smokerphobic doctor just once and I'd never want to meet another. Needless to say we fell out and I told him where he could stick his stethoscope as he offered me a tour of a hospital ward full of cancer patients.
My other half's disastrous attempts at syringing his own ear led to a trip to my latest doctor's surgery recently and he was diagnosed with an ear infection and asked if he smoked.
My other half replied : "Not through my ear, I don't."
The doctor nearly fell off his chair laughing and sent him away with some drops and sound advice based on the actual cause of his problem and not the assumption.
Most doctors you meet in the real world are still caring and compassionate and human - so, you're right - who, exactly, are these activist doctors and who, exactly, do they represent.
That has also been my experience - the questions are asked but nothing is said.
My doctor told me that the questioning is a contractual obligation. Also, a further turn of the screw has been added. He is obliged to invite people over a certain age to accept a home visit from a practice nurse, during which all these questions (smoking, drinking, height and weight) must be asked. I accepted such a visit and had a huge row with the nurse(s) over these invasive questions.
I have no doubt that the whole thing has been concocted by some 'Experts' in the health dept who know nothing about medicine at all, but are using the respect that people have for their doctors to further their own agenda.
I too declined to answer the smoking question as "I can see the way things are going." The nurse seemed to have heard it before and wasn't the least bit bothered.
Further to my post above - a friend recently signed up to a new practice and was offered smoking cessation which she declined.
Some time later she got a phone call at home from her surgery asking if she'd changed her mind and if she would at least make an appointment to discuss the possibility of quitting.
She said she really didn't want to quit and felt the call was invasive. She decided if they rang her again she'd go at least to tell them that she doesn't welcome such behaviour from her doctor's surgery.
Several months ago, I was attempting to dislodge a Dyson from an understairs cupboard, and felt a sharp pain under my RH ribcage. Pretty agonising, and I found it difficult to breath. I got into the recovery position, and my wife called 999. I was taken by ambulance to A&E. The paramedics gave me gas and air, which was rather pleasant! (Before I go any further, I found out later that this musular spasm is nicknamed 'Devil's grip').
Anyway, after waiting so long at A&E that I got better and got ill again, I was seen by a doctor. A pleasant young lady who obviously went through the tiresome questions. I was honest, and said that I smoke and drink, and that my units of alcohol were more in a day than is recommended for a week. I am also exceeding my 'ideal weight' - whatever that is meant to be.
She said nothing untoward. Listened to my lungs and declined a chest xray as they sounded fine. She arranged an ECG and left. I had the ECG, and after another long wait she returned.
Now, what did I expect?, nothing like what I got. She told me I was fine, asked me if I had some 400m ibobrufen which you can buy over the counter, I said yes, and some paracetemol. She gave me a booklet about alcohol, apologising, because she said that they have to give them to every patient!
I told her that I was supposed to be doing a job with a big band that evening. "What do you play"? she asked enthusiastically, "trombone" I replied. "Good for the heart and lungs" she said!
I left with a mixture of astonishment and relief. By the way, she told me to do the gig. "Take some pain killers with you" she said. "If the muscle spasm starts again, a strong ibobrufen with a couple of paracetemol will do the trick"!
As someone who comes from a Country who fled the Imperial Measurements for the Metric System, I can advise you on weights.
One kilo is equal to 89.7 pint bottles of cream !
I find the same thing in most cases (though my experience is limited as I rarely visit a surgery), and especially with older GPs. Doctors, seems to me, are much more sensible than the body called ''medical profession''. But even nurses are usually actually OK. The species that IS zealous is in my experience health visitors (pretty useless trade anyway, clearly designed to give women neuroses on the grounds of breast-feeding failures).