Doctors, scripts and choice

Letters from Mr Charrington #6

An update from my good friend Mr Charrington…

Dear Winston,

I have to tell you how taken I was with the reply from Allan to my last letter to you.  Well done Allan, your actions are quite inspiring!  In my situation, the doctor I mentioned is one I have been seeing for only the last few years.  Prior to this, I had been seeing Doctor Joe since I relocated to this city.  When I first saw him the practice actually called him “Young Doctor Joe”. He has since retired so you get the idea that I saw him for quite a few years.  Even as a young Doctor, Joe would ALWAYS listen carefully and work through the treatment options with me.  It felt like quite the partnership.  I have read and heard of many older doctors ruefully reviewing the current training and methods of Allopathic Medicine.  In my terminology their methods are akin to a poorly designed flowchart where modern doctors work through a number of input/output boxes as they are the only tools they are trained to use.  So when a patient comes along with a particular issue then that ‘input’ is fed into the input/output box and the output is given according to the script provided by their medical college or association - just like this one addressing Medical exemptions.

Whereas, to continue the analogy, young doctor Joe was taught that a good flowchart covers all aspects of the issue, will have a number of decision diamonds which deal with IF/THEN situations which require more consideration and thought but should achieve a better result. 

I now see my current ‘doctor’ because a close relative recommended him and is actually employed by him.  As the owner of the ‘practice’ he extends free medical care to me (what we call Bulk Billing in Australia) knowing of the relationship with his employee whom he tells me he values highly.  

So here I am, increasingly losing confidence in this fellow and unwilling to jeopardise my relative’s employment though too much overt dissent to the accepted wisdom of the medical sages.  I consider myself extremely fortunate that I actually do not have any serious medical conditions.  Yes, a few long term annoying things such as asthma and gastro intestinal reflux which are really under control.  Now I am avoiding my newish doctor, not only as I can’t help but think he’s not as wise as he thinks as I stare into his masked visage while being less than 1.5 metres apart, but having realised that should I develop some more serious condition I want the best medical care I can find whereas I currently have the cheapest I can find.

I believe that as we share our stories, as Allan C. has done, we each inspire one another to be better than we are currently.   We have settled for second or third best when it comes to our political leaders and look where that has got us (Okay Allan, Anna Stasi is actually quite a bit lower than 2 or 3).   Some say we get the leaders we deserve -  I disagree - we all deserve better but have somehow accepted less than the best, for various reasons.  Similarly, accepting a second best doctor because he was ‘free’ has come with a cost, including the restrictions I have placed on myself in dealing with him.  Surely there are other young doctor Joe’s out there and I need to find myself one.  Surely, there are better men and women willing to enter politics and lead us out of this nightmare.  Like Allan, I believe this needs to end soon Winston.  Already too many have suffered needlessly; too many have died too soon. 

Yours

Bob

PS: Have you any interest in the journal I mentioned?