Just Gimme Some Truth: A Doctor Speaks Out

So I went to the Doctor today. Normally that's not cause for blog inclusion but I mention it mainly because she said something that struck me as profound. I'd Love to publish her name but, out of respect for her and our agreement (I won't cough up her name, she won't tell anyone that I'm a hermaphrodite), I will not do so here.

I just wish other people, my whole family for one, knew her. Why? Because she is by far the best, most attuned and personally attentive Doctor that I have ever known. And while I have no way of knowing if her practice is demonstrative of Hong Kong Doctors as a whole, I can say that, for myself, I've never been happier.

Sure, she makes me weigh myself everytime- as if there's going to be a shocking find there. And, yeah, she takes my temperature and blood pressure and sticks that unholy stick down the back of my throat.

The thing is, when the state of American healthcare can be accurately described as a cursory check of one's pupils and blood pressure, a tap on the knee and a shameful 2 minute pimping in regard to the wonders of Celebrex or Prozac or, watch out world, "Celexa!", followed by a bill for $800 dollars.........

...which is then followed quickly by 9,897 phone calls to an insurance company (inevitably owned or, at least heavily financed by, a politician) that you've been paying loads of money to for 2 or 5 or 8 or 19 or 26 or 42 or 60 years who suddenly won't take your calls or even answer the letters you've sent which ask why they're screwing you and how they can possibly sleep at night.........

...an experience like mine is something to remember.

I don't mean to suggest that this Doctor is not subject to whatever weird and possibly archaic health insurance laws that Hong Kong has. I DO mean to state as a fact, unequivocally, that she is not part of a system that thinks of medicine as solely an enterprise in making gobs of cash.

Here, thankfully, medicine seems to be taken much more seriously. Y'know- like you actually matter. Not like you've just dropped off a crankshaft to be worked on and will pick up again on Friday.

Which, I guess, is what allows for the fact that after having been in her office 6 times since last August, I have yet to see a pharmaceutical salesmen there. You know the guy- the one who has just bought the whole staff an exquisite lunch and showered them with gift certificates to Sally Beauty? Great hair, killer smile?

If there's anything regrettable about not seeing the Pharmaceutical Salesman these days, it's that I no longer have pens in the house that say stuff like "Levitra- Get your crank up, man!" (Alright, the pens were real, the slogan was mine. Levitra- call me - I have loads more where that came from...many involving crankshafts!)

Right, back to today's experience-

What a joy it is to actually have your Doctor listen, really listen, to what you're saying and to engage you in conversation! Asking you about things that you hadn't considered. Offering alternatives to prescription drugs. Offering lifestyle alternatives.

Sure, sometimes the lifestyle alternatives are a bit vague. You know, "don't drink or smoke or eat fried foods or play on the train tracks". Other times they're less vague and include such things as "you really need to take better care of yourself" or the even less helpful "I can't believe nobody knows you're a hermaphrodite!" but the advice I'm offered, while perhaps not life-changing, still amounts to more than I've ever been extended by my HMO-approved doctors in the states. 

For example, today I was given a book full of vegetarian recipes for people who would really prefer meat. Well, hell yeah, where do I sign???!?!?!?! Sure, most of the recipes have something to do with the evil Portobello mushroom and the mysterious "Aubergine" (something that I would soon remember as being just a run-of-the-mill, evil eggplant), but what a fantastic display of consideration for my dime just the same!

Best of all, my Doctor has time for me. And, when it's all over but the dying, that's what it's all about right? When I make an appointment with my new Doctor I am assured that I will have enough time, usually much more than enough time, to get to all the things that I would forget to tell my American Doctors in the standard 4 minutes. 

She can assure me that she has time because she doesn't schedule 14 people all at once as I am also accustomed to. More specifically, her office allots one hour with each patient and when I leave I am handed a card, not that much bigger than a business card, reminding me of my next checkup. On the back it says the following:

"I like you. If I didn't I would already have urged you to find another Doctor. I have done so in the past and, unfortunately, will likely feel compelled to do so again. In most of the instances where I have asked someone to seek another primary care practitioner it was because I simply did not feel that my message was getting through.

You are scheduled to come back on ___________. Attached you will find a printout detailing my recommendations- follow them. I did not become a Doctor because I felt the need to buy a bigger car. I became a Doctor because I take pleasure in helping people. Please keep this in mind when considering whether or not to do what I am asking you to do.

As always, please be aware that I feel it important to spend time with my patients. For that reason, all patients are scheduled for one hour. Should the patient before you have a particular need to stay for longer, I must beg your understanding and ask you to know that I would do the same for you.

Indeed, I may be forced to do it for you one day- should you choose not to follow my recommendations.

Sincerely,

Doctor ______ _________"

Yeah, that's another reason I like her- she's a bit of a ball-buster. She doesn't mince words and, while she does seem to think that I'm amusing, she is also not afraid to tell me that I'm an idiot and, invariably, that I'm doing something that will surely kill me.

Lastly, I asked the Doctor about all of the many issues that both patients and Doctors in America are facing these days. She shook her head ruefully and said something that genuinely hit home. With her approval, I asked her to repeat it so that I could write it down and include it in my blog: 

"See, I'm sorry, but I just have nothing good to say about America's healthcare system. I Love America but it has a major health crisis and I am certain, just as certain as I am that the pants I'm wearing are blue, that people are dying because of health insurance companies. More, probably, than most people even realize. 

Managed care started out as a great idea- kind of like communism. It sounds great to the uninitiated. But, along the way, it became less about triage and more about who is expendable....because it costs too much to make them well or, worse, to even keep them alive. 

My parents sent me to a prep school in North Carolina before I went to college and I love America. It has some of the best medical schools and Doctors in the world and has by far the best medical research and development, but the system is purely about profit and I just don't see how any nation as powerful and typically forward-thinking as America can make the practice of helping people, of curing people, an enterprise in profiteering."

There's nothing that I can add to that, really, except that the United States Congress, en masse, should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

Or, at the very least, be forced to join an HMO under an assumed name.