Doctors attitude

[James1]

Hello everybody,

I find many Doctors's attitude surprising. I critised my radation treatment for Prostate cancer to my specialist. I compared my cancer treatment now with the previous treatment  2 years ago. Then it was quite good even with complications I had. I told  him that that there were problems with waiting times and why you were given a time and then treated an hour later. When I complained to the staff, the excuses were the machines had reached their maiximum use or there were software problems.  Orgaisational stuffups and organisational apathy. Nursing reviews were less than useful in my case never given. When I complained to the specialist Oncologist, he said : "Are you emotional about things"? The inference was you could'nt be emotional if you have cancer and see the chaos of radiotherapy that had descended compared to a couple of years before. The failure of the medico to listen to my gripes is typically of years of Doctor run establishment. Given recent events things might be changing but very slowly Many years ago I worked in a hospital where I could see people living in a tiny world where patients were always wrong if they complain they were wrong because the hospital and its medicos and nurses were perfect. The system does not want to get better unless serious problems are exposed. I believe that patients should play a greater role to improve the runnning of our health system but that is probably perhaps an idea for the far future. I don't see that happening soon.

[Katekat]

Hi @James1 it sounds like you've experienced a tough time!

It's definitely every patient's right to question and be able to provide feedback at all times on their treatment and certainly to air any grievances. Most hospitals have formalised grievance procedures which you may wish to look into.

Also, just a thought, have you thought looking into something like patient advocacy as an area of interest? They are always looking for passionate people.

I hope your current cancer treatment is progressing well otherwise and hope to see more of you here.

[James1]

How does one go about and become an advocate. I have been thinking about something on those line. It would be good to start because I don't think patients are given a fair go at times by Doctors.