The meat market

I needed physio treatment, but I have had to arrange that myself. Both my interstate friends received assistance from the practice for physio and follow up calls from their doctors as to how they were travelling. I had blood taken when the stents were removed, but I had to chase the practice for the results.

I paid a lot of money for the procedure, only to end up in the hands of a dysfunctional money making machine. I believe the doctor to have been competent but his practice was not. I will not return and I will not recommend his practice to anyone. One day out from an operation I do not like having the phone hung up on me by an office manager.

The sense of entitlement that pervaded the practice was palpable. The patient was a commodity, a piece of meat, a problem to be disposed of as quickly as possible.

When I was overseas with the department of foreign affairs in some difficult posts, staff were expected and were willing to work around the clock to help people injured in road accidents or from other causes. Both the victim and family in Australia were assisted by personnel at the post and by the department in Australia. This was done willingly and for no extra remuneration. The people in that practice would expect such treatment, but when called on to show the same consideration, care and compassion, they did not.

Is this how we are going to treat each other in the future? Is money going to increasingly guide the hands of medical specialists? Do they believe themselves to be so needed and so important that there will not be push back from the community? Do they and their staff expect forelock tugging? Are patients the problem through doctor deification? Did I pay through the nose because I was a private patient?

My quest is to see all doctors, specialists and surgeons treat their patents with genuine respect and if they have to be taught manners and common decency so be it. Stand up for yourself, no more forelock tugging, no more being treated as a second class citizen, demand equality, answers and civility!

Bruce Haigh is a political commentator and retired diplomat.