My wife is addicted to Holby City. It is set in this imaginary hospital where there are the pioneering consultants that are creating new procedures to help save lives or hardworking doctors and nurses working incredibly long hours. They are all trying to do their best to interact with patients and diagnose diseases and suggest amazing cures to the astonishment of their peers. Unfortunately this is not why my wife watches the program.
In practically every episode there is least one staff member that succumbs to some horrible disease or is involved in some life-threatening accident and ends up being a patient themselves. Then there is inevitable love affairs that result from working so close together. The question my wife asks herself, at the beginning of the program, is who will fall in or out of love with whom. While my wife watches I have a theory that my restless leg symptoms are somehow worsened by work watching such a ridiculous storyline.
Programs such as these generally show the medical profession in a very positive light. I think that’s how society sees them. As a result we look up to them and very rarely question what they have to say. Now let’s go in to the doctor’s surgery.
There’s a room full of patients in the waiting room. Hopefully most of which have paid up their national insurance but none of which are paying for their appointment. They feel entitled and are looking for their money’s worth. The doctor has 10 minutes to see the patient and in that 10 minutes there has to be a level of satisfaction generated by both the doctor and the patient.
How would a patient react if the doctor said, ‘the best thing you can do is just rest and taking antibiotics would not be a good idea and just let your body’s immune system fight whatever is causing the infection’. There would be a riot! At the end of the day GPS end up being a dispensers of drugs to their patients. If they have this particular ailment then they should be given that particular drug.
