FIRST: DO NO HARM
The ‘powers that be’ say that keeping medicine at arm’s length is all about self-preservation, about not getting too close and allowing yourself to be too affected.
It’s quite the opposite for me. If I were to see 35 patients a day and not go within, that’s when I burn out. When you are expected to see people for 15 minutes, they expect you to fix them in 15 minutes. They make it my problem. Here we are, being trained for up to 15 years to become General Practitioners, and then we are given 15 minutes with the patient. In actual fact, the main work is squeezed into six minutes. What profession would train for that long, to squeeze their expertise into six minutes of exchange? It is bizarre.
It is all about communication. If you invest in that, where the person feels in charge, has ownership of their health - and understands this from the start - the economic benefits would be huge. They are bound to be.
People still come in and see me with colds – as if doctors can do anything about colds
