Well, the practice of sharing the cellnumber in compassion for patient coupled with utter lack of tele-etiquette in Indian Society has cost most doctors worst cursing nightmare of their lives! Believe me, there have been calls to enquire about diet, medicine doses, appointments, and ofcourse wanna cry in the middle of the night! To my surprise, the illiterate and poor NEVER disturb unless an emergency, its the uber rich hypereducated who think of even so much as a sneeze is a medical emergency. There are some very respectable exceptions, very well mannered patients who message and await answer. But there are those who email, message, whatsapp all at the same time, and then keep on asking for reply on wtsapp or facebook. or worse, keep on calling till one replies! .. Especially Saturdays and Sundays, knowing that this precious little time one gets with family, for self must not be claimed. There are regular Sunday emailers, and also those who keep on sending incessant wtsapp messages everyday starting 6 AM: right from greetings to jokes to anything .. just bcos it does not cost anything except the privacy of someone who rarely gets time for self or family! There are many who do not know that phone calls are supposed to be short, and do not replace a full consult (followed by: can you please message me because I may not remember)... The tendency to avoid consulting / visiting fees by simply making a phone call has become very common... The biggest joke is the Patients telling doctors that they are so busy that they CANNOT come for their own check-up, and then ask the doctor to go through their 4 page email, reports and get back .. The US / UK patients wait for months to see a specialist, the Indian rich make the specialist wait for follow up... they are too busy till they drop and then want the doctor immediately there! Poor and illiterate patients do follow up and get on with their life earliest.. To date, only two out of hundreds of patients who call / message / email for advice/ consult have had the courtesy to ask upon meeting about the charges for tele-consult / e-consult... It is a presumed-free service added to the list of a doctors Duties as expected by our society... We give numbers to patient as help in case of emergency, and NO doctor in the world is afraid of receiving a call for true emergency, whatever time... but it is seldom for emergency that this is used: and yes, there are those whose kids / parents are sick for days, and only turn sicker on saturdays or sundays, when it suddenly becomes emergency! The attitude is ek call / message se kya hota hai? ..They dont know that such ek chhotasa call / message not only disturb and insult the patient in front of the doctor, but also breaks the thought chain the doctor is supposed to be having while examining a patient. This is crucial for correct diagnosis. This cellphone thing is one major reason wht the Doctor-Patient bond is disturbed. To add, there are these patients whose cellphone keeps on ringing, and they MUST pick it up and talk!! Few know that the calls / messages of an average doctor exceed hundred per day... Even such enquiries as where are you, appointment time bargain, address explaination etc and continuous commentary about patients activity (he didnt sleep well... he is not talking much today to a running commentary of whereabouts ..we have started, We are here in waiting room, we are waiting for 15 minutes etc...) and they are NOT happy to talk to anyone else except doctor... THey have to ask the doc himself, even if there are receptionists, assistants etc. And then it is a crime to spend some time to connect with friends on facebook on sundays / nights etc, ..just as you open fb, there are few more consultations waiting. Stalking by patients will ultimately result in never connecting on FB it seems!!! Very few patients, who are friends too, respect privacy.. To show care for the patient, one must call the doctor!! ITS FREE FREE FREE!
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:46:22 +0000
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