Dear Doctor…

Not long ago I was referred to a doctor who I took an instant dislike to.

I questioned the doctor on the amount they wanted me to pay, before looking at my file.

The doctor walked out, and I left the surgery.

After a few days when I had settled down I sent the doctor a letter… 

Dear Doctor,

I did not ask to see you, I was sent there because you or the system did not trust my doctor or thought my doctor (who I have every faith in) was thought to be unworthy of his diagnoses.

I first visited your office to put in some forms and was treated rudely and was told that they would ring me when you felt like seeing me.

After more almost 2 months I rang your office to see that the paper work was not misplaced. And was abruptly told “we will get to you when we are ready”. Not a confidence booster.

We eventually received a call and I was instructed to get a list of tests done, and you would see me. The letter also demanded $406 extorted from me.

I questioned the costs as it occurred to me that this was far beyond a fair and reasonable amount, but I would ask someone to justify it before I paid it as I may have been wrong.

So I thought I would test whether your office was run on medical or money principles.

Your face when I said (in jest) that I had no money to pay you answered my question.

You flew into a rant. “I was told that you were going to extort money from me”. Telling me that I had no right to be there without bringing the cash.

I had the money in cash in my pocket but when I asked you to justify your price you became indignant that I questioned you. I could only see ‘dollar signs’ in your eyes.

So I told you that I would pay you, using this week’s rent and you lost it.

You could no longer see any dollar signs coming from me, as an ongoing future cash cow. You looked down your nose at me as if I was peasant with the plague.

You very unprofessionally stormed from the room telling me to go away that you did not want to treat me, and told me ‘to go to the public system’.

You then ran to the back room and hid, like a spoilt child, until I was gone. As I said, very unprofessional.

Almost as unprofessional as having a snotty nose school kid carrying his school bag amongst the paying patients, in the waiting room.

Funny if you had reacted differently when I first suggested that I didn’t have the money.

If you had shown the slightest compassion, empathy or concern, or caring at all, really, I would have told you that I had the money in cash in my pocket.

But I was, and still am convinced that you are only interested in my money not my medical condition.

To that end, I will be checking with Medicare and Medibank to see if you made a claim for 15 seconds of your time.

If you have, I shall be informing them of this letter and the reason for it.

I will return to my doctor (who, as I have said before have the greatest respect for). He and I will have a good laugh and we go through the results of the tests, all of which I have had before.

The doctor and I will find another doctor. One that is interested in, people as patients, not for the depth of their pockets. Interested in our well-being not our wealth, in the caring, not the cash.

Because we certainly would not find it with you.

Regards

PS. I would not expect any sort of an apology, because your ‘kind’ never do.

Was it the right thing to do? Would your specialist walked out like this doctor did?

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