Doctors These Days Frustrate Reader

Dear Dr. Gott: Doctors these days frustrate reader

Dear Dr. Gott: In Florida, we call health care "concierge doctoring." As senior citizens, $1,500 to $1,600 a year for each of us is horrendous. We are barely getting through the month. I had knee surgery this past May. The operating doctor could not visit me in the hospital or in rehab, which was a lice-infested nursing home. He did nothing.

My internist forgot to make arrangements for my stress test. He also did not visit me in the hospital. Both these doctors sent their associates to see me, and the associates don't even know me.

I'm grateful I was born in 1929. Doctors were doctors then. Why do all the young people want to be doctors? They can become electricians, handymen, etc., and not worry about being sued. More doctors now post signs that tell you they don't carry malpractice any longer. What does one devise from all this? You can never speak to a doctor on the phone because he isn't available. They don't make house calls, and all they think about is money.

I have Medicare and good supplemental insurance, so why are doctors so difficult to deal with? The situation is very distressing to me and to many of my friends. What is going to happen to us?

Dear Reader: I, too, have seen the not-so-subtle changes in medical practice. And, like you, I am concerned about many of these changes. Clearly, there are greedy practitioners. However, there is still an

undercurrent of service and the feeling of do-good (as opposed to doing well) among young physicians.

Although the list is growing, the money-oriented practitioners are in the minority. Unfortunately, they often take shortcuts and refuse to take the time to sit down with patients who have health concerns. So I prefer to be fair and not label doctors, as a group, with the "I want to get rich" syndrome.

If your practitioner has committed an inappropriate act of overcharging you, for example, raise the issue with him or notify his state medical society. Otherwise, give him the benefit of the doubt. He may have seemed distracted if he put in a tough day.

Remember, doctors need to learn about interpersonal issues, so don't hesitate to share any observations you have. I can testify that good physicians (reluctantly) welcome criticism as a necessary component of the healthy doctor/patient relation.

Northwest Herald ( McHenry County, Illinois )