A lot of people feel that because I am critical of some of the things which doctors do , that I am a doctor basher . Actually , it’s because I have high regards for the medical profession that I'm willing to be openly critical. It's an open secret that there are some practices which some medical professionals engage in which are not in the patient's best interests. I feel it's better to be open and transparent about these issues and discuss them, rather than to pretend that these problems don't exist by trying to sweep them under the carpet and turning a blind eye towards them. It's when we do so that the distrust between doctors and patients increases , and we end up in the present sad messy state of affairs that we find ourselves embroiled in today, when patients don't trust doctors and doctors find themselves unhappy, overworked, undervalued and unappreciated.
The only way to solve this problem is to discuss these issues openly , so that we can find a solution for them by working together. In fact , when a honest doctor sees a colleague do something which is unethical or incorrect , and then chooses to keep quiet about this from a misplaced sense of professional loyalty , he is not being a friend. His silence is actually causing much more harm than my vocal criticism, because he is allowing these problems to fester uncheckced, by remaining a silent spectator .
I don't think of myself as being a doctor basher. I think of myself as a patient advocate , who is willing to criticize when required , so that both doctors and patients will benefit.
No comments:
Post a Comment