Thanks to Crippen for pointing out an excellent US medical blog Covert Rationing.
There, Dr Rant was unsurprised to find a reference to a New Scientist article about research that revealed that between 1:50 'normal' patients and 1:20 sick patients have homicidal thoughts about their GP.
That's around 50 patients per average GP.
Ah, the joys of being at the front end of a shit system that does not want to treat people because it costs money....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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22 comments:
"a shit system that does not want to treat people because it costs money.... "
well said
http://notdrrant.blogspot.com/
could be worse - you could be a lawyer
Hi Sir Frank (well, maybe next year - I put your name forward)
I had a root around on the Covert Rationing Blog. Bear in mind that it is written by a Consultant Cardiologist. He is not a family doc. Take a look at his post:
PRIMARY CARE : TIME TO REBOOT
http://covertrationingblog.com/new-business-models-for-healthcare/reinventing-primary-care
I stuck this comment under it:
A brilliant analysis. Fascinating to read about the parallel universe of American health care. As a student I had a time attached to a family practice residency in Chicago. At that time, the generalist family docs- to-be were bullish about the future. In the UK, the Family doc, or GP, has always had a more entrenched position than in the USA.
But the same “dumbing down” process is happening here. The nurse-specialists are on the skills escalator taking a upward ride to demonstrate the everlasting truth of the Peter principle. The UK “internist”, the old fashioned general physician has disappeared. They are all sub-specialists now. No longer do we have that most wonderful of all doctors, the general physician, who took a holistic view of the patient, and took ownership of his “problem” and not of the organ system in which the sub-specialist specialises.
Enter the Gypsies. Well, the GPwSIs - the GPs “with a special interest.” They too are on a skills escalator with their nurse colleagues, pretending that their “interest” in, say, cardiology makes them cardiologists. It doesn’t. I think our generation of doctors are the last of the old school. Maybe this is progress. Maybe not. I dread getting ill!
John
Read the post, and his reply. It’s great stuff… but a scary look in the crystal ball.
John
Ah, good old Niku, ever confident from behind his comfy keyboard. Strange, when I offered you a pop in any pub car park in the UK I heard precisley the square root of fuck all!
you fucking muppet.
brilad000@gmail.com
I'm free all weekend and I can afford plenty of diesel.
***TROLL WARNING***
Please can I remind people that NIKU is a troll and is not to be fed.
The previous exchange was an example of a troll saying something outrageous and then claiming the outraged response is a sign of how degenerate the respondent is. Classic troll behaviour.
Troll posts are being removed.
glad to see that invitations to have fights behind the bike shed remain. Hope you follow this with the ever instructive post of "50 ways to kill a patient"
br, directions to my local are now on http://notdrrant.blogspot.com/.
I find this post troubling. Your are suggesting that doctors are dying in mass at the hands of their patients, based on an American survey. I have missed the press coverage of the hundreds of doctors who must have lost their lives.
It would seem to me, that you might want to concentrate on the real problems in hospitals like MRSA. There is press coverage out there to suggest this is real.
This, and several of the other posts on this site would suggest that, at the very least, the author is far more concerned about him/her self than the patient they look after.
I think a great deal of our GP. I think you are doing the majority a great disservice printing this sort of misleading rubbish.
simken
I think you perhaps are guilty of leaving your sense of humour behind before you read the article.
There is a more serious point, though. Dr Rant, like all medical bloggers, is to some extent (not totally) writing about himself and about all doctors.
Have you considered this? When patients want to complain about doctors there are all sorts of avenues down which they may pursue the complaint. What does a doctor do when he is treated like shit by a patient? It happens you know. You just have to get on with treating them and take it on the nose. So it's good to have somewhere to let of steam from time to time and also perhaps to make people aware of some of the problems doctors face.
John
Dr. Crippen
I don't doubt what you say, and would imagine it is a very frustrating experience.
There is however a significant difference between being abusive, destructive, dare I say immature, and blowing off steam.
Many thanks for your explanation, but I am not sure a blog like this furthers your cause in a positive way. In contrast, your blog seems to argue and blow off steam at a significantly more mature level.
Simkin,
The research is not about patients killing doctors, it is about patients wanting to kill their doctors.
In my career I have been spat at, strangled, threatened with a knife, threatened with a gun, had a cigarette stubbed out on my arm, been kicked, had punches thrown at me, been attacked with a chair, had a table thrown at me, been thrown over a table by a patient, and been chased round an Accident and Emergency department by a violent drunk.
I've been screamed at, shouted at, and been knocked over by patients, and been in fear of my life several times.
Nurses and doctors working in Accident and Emergency are more likely to be assaulted than police officers.
I've worked with ambulance crews that had to wear bullet proof vests because people were taking pot shots at them as they drove past.
What's your job like?
Philosophical question for Simkins:
How can doctors put their patients first, if the patients do not put the doctors first?
And finally, (because Simkins has really pissed me off),
Don't you think there might be a link in the following:
1. Politicians cut costs by getting rid of nurses and closing wards.
2. Bed occupancy is above safe levels.
3. Patients have to shit the bed because there are not enough nurses to help them to the toilet.
4. MRSA levels.
5. Patients being really pissed off.
6. Patients wanting to kill the people who are at the front line of this crap system.
Or are you too fucking stupid to see the causality of the 'press coverage'?
(Anyone who thinks press coverage is a way to judge priorities is a complete moron).
on a roll, Frank? :)
Dr Rant - Thank you for punctuating my point so succinctly. With you, anger is not very far from the surface and does not serve your cause well at all.
I would also point out that your job is not that bad when compared to many others on this globe. At least you get paid well. I am sure policemen would love to make even half of what you make, and face the same dangers, if not more.
Some of your points are valid, but the way you argue them is not. I would suggest again, grow-up.
Simkin,
If you read the sidebar you will find that Dr Rant is a fictional character.
His character is an angry, verbally violent, and offensive NHS doctor. You may not like him (I often don't), but what he says resonates with a lot of doctors and quite a few patients.
However, to confuse him with a real doctor treating real patients is like saying that Jack Regan is a disgrace to the Sweeney and to say that the Dr Rant team must be bad doctors in real life is like saying that John Thaw is a bad person because he roughs up suspects on TV.
Just in case you don't have time to read the sidebar, his name is a bit of a hint.
If you don't like Dr Rant, don't read him.
-Ed.
Dr. Rant,
I would have hoped that you have a blog that is open to public to solicit comment. If that is not the case then please let me know. Also, if their is a requirement that I agree with your "persona" before I read the blog and comment, please point me to that requirement in the sidebar.
How different is the real person behind the Dr. Rant blog than that of his/her "persona"? Do you step away from this and into your practice and become a completely different person? I am sorry that it troubles you when I express a concern or an opinion that you don't agree with.
If this was a place where you "take the piss" and "blow off steam", while pointing out untruths and inconsistencies, that would be a different matter. You clearly cross a line though, and to be "frank", it is more than a little worrisome to think you return from this "persona" to treat real patients.
I really don't see how this either helps you to feel better, or furthers your cause. I will accept your assertion that it does, but repeat you clearly cross a societal line with some of your comments, and really do need to grow-up.
Simkin.
"If this was a place where you "take the piss" and "blow off steam", while pointing out untruths and inconsistencies, that would be a different matter"
Er, do you want an alphabetic list of where we have pointed out untruths and inconsistencies or do you want the list order of importance?
Actually, better still just read pretty much any of our posts since virtually all of them point out vital untruths and inconsistencies.
For example, in this post we are pointing out that a surprising number of patients report wanting to kill their primary care physician. (This is a US study, and leaving aside American's propensity to homicide, it could be argued that NHS GPs, being gatekeepers, might be even less popular).
This is inconsistent with the doctor-patient relationship that we take for granted, and may even make the whole 'patient advocate' thing an illusion (an untruth).
Are you interested in discussing this topic, or do you just want to keep telling Dr Rant to grow up and slag him off for using 'rude words'?
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