To summarise a fair bit of what we’ve been saying in this blog so far.
If a doctor is not prepared to put anything in writing, they should probably be avoided, other things being equal.
At the very least, after you’ve had a consultation with a doctor, you should be able to send them, (by “snail mail” if need be,) something along the lines of, “In our consultation today, I understood you to say, blah blah blah. Have I got this right?” and get an appropriate response. To us, if you don’t get a response to something like this, you’ve almost certainly wasted your time and money in seeing them, as it indicates to us that even they aren’t sure that what they’ve told you or recommended is helpful – that they certainly don’t want to be held ACCOUNTABLE for it.
And further, it is to be noted, that if they haven’t got an ordinary email address, they’ve only got an email form, it’s not very likely that you’ll get a response, and if they haven’t even got one of these, they’ve only got a fax number, it’s even less likely that you’ll get a response, and if they haven’t even got a fax number, just a phone number, and you have to resort to sending them a letter by Australia Post, it’s virtually certain that you won’t get a response.
(Of course these things apply just as much to other people and organisations that we may be thinking of dealing with.)
In saying this, it seems impossible to find GPs who will put anything in writing – at least in Sydney, Australia. It’s left to us, the people, to scratch around hoping that we’ll find one who won’t lead us too badly astray.
But, in relation to medical specialists, at least, modern communication technology provides means which we believe make it relatively easy to locate the 10 out of 10 doctors and to avoid those who deserve 1 or 2 out of 10 at best – means which we find INCREDIBLY EXCITING.
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