Are Doctors insensitive or do we ask too much of them?
June 16, 2008
June 16, 2008
There are countless complains from many Ghanaians that medical professionals are often insensitive to patients, resulting in many deaths.
While medical practitioners often complain of a lack of logistics such as beds etc, many patients complain that doctors and nurses are often too quick to dismiss patients.
Some medical practitioners are accused of being indifferent to the plight of patients especially when there are emergencies; hence they are regarded as being cruel.
Their constant demand for salary increase against their very little effort smacks of lackadaisical attitude and cruelty.
Do doctors leave dying patients unattended because they are lazy, cruel or that there honestly isn’t anything they can do?
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10 Responses to “Are Doctors insensitive or do we ask too much of them?”
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I think the Ghanaian doctors think they know too much and therefore should not be question on what they are doing. Which is totally wrong. Because each patient case is unique. Ghana need to introduce malpractice law suit against doctors and they should also introduce a law that prevent a doctor from refusing treatment for non-payment, that is really assasine. Doctor’s even if you owe the clinic should stay away from adminstration work. Doctor’s should also be limit to one specialty. The Government needs to import a lot of medical equipments and train people to work on them. We should not believe all what Doctors says.
Well it is interesting listening to the public outcry about doctors. As a doctor I sympathise with them and do not think my colleagues are miniature Gods and should be asked questions about what they do for their clients. I agree there should be law suits against doctors like it happens elsewhere.
But this should not happen unless the appropriate structures are put in place. For instance, if I know I can be sued for negligence, then I will only have to see the few patients I am supposed to see well. One will not take on the excess jobs or impoverise when equipments are unavailble for fear of being sued if the unfortunate happens.
I have seen up to 100 patients in a day, where realistically I can only see about 30 patients or less effectively in a day. So what happens to the 70 patients? Do I send them away?
I am never in anyway giving a panacea for lousy job as we work with human lives but please let’s be realistic. Which group of senior staff working for government will accept salaries not reviewed for more than 2 years and promotions frozen, not to talk about the individual salary deductions blamed on computer mistakes. One never gets this money back once deducted.
I think we are only asking for our due. Doctors are not the only people trained by Ghanaians. University education has been free since its inception probably until now.
why single out the doctor when issues of health is concerned? anyway can someone provide answers to the following questions?
1. how many patients is a doctor supposed to see a day?
2. how many should be operated day?
3. can doctors go on break as pertains with other civil servants and even have off-days?
4. can a tired doctor say no to a patient?
5.should we continue improvise when there no equipment to work with?
whilst this discussion was going on i had already spent 48 hours actively working .
not forgetting the numerous hurdles you encounter in your bid to save a patient.
most people think all the doctor does is taken care of patients at OPD; in addition one must engage in research,study for specialist exams,attend serminars, see in-patients as well et c. if more pro work is done in our hospitals some of these unrealistic expectations would not come up for discussions.
nobody is ever satisfied. pls tell the doctors that if we all complain then who will do the listening?
how we go do am? every body should complain small and compromise small
doctors actually think they’re gods why else is this an issue
i could also ask a lot of questions about my job which be an inconvenience for me. pls tell doctors that they can’t have a perfect job… no one does
as ghanians we like complainig so much about problems we face instead of finding solutions to them.we should rather be discussing ways of improving facilities at our hospitals rather than ranting at health workers for turning patients away. have u seen the magnificient edifice which is the korle bu admin block?the money spent could have been used to expand and improve facilities at the emergency block which is an eyesore. what do u expect from all other hospitals if the largest hospital in the country(probably west africa) is always full and even refers patients?lets set our priorities right and go for solutions instead of the blame game for nothing would change if we continue this way.the beds wont miraculously increase by themselves!
Ghanaian doctors always want manner to fall from heaven to them, but the days of manner is gone.They should all this not to scare up coming doctors
Ignorance is a disease in Ghana.People get up and just pass comment in the spirit of freedom of speech.As I read some of the comments above I cant help but say God Help Ghana.Yet these people are the loudest including those of the media.I wonder how many ghanaians can work continuosly for 48-72hr .This is not to say the next day is day off! People,drs DONT GET DAY OFF.They work continuosly throughout the week including weekends,yet they are not expected to make mistakes.When clients go to seek medical attention from some of these herbalists who charge them huge sums of money only for them to be rushed to the hospital at the 11th hr expecting miracles from the dr they by passed and this miracle doesnt happen,then the dr is not good.The media has contributed a lot to some of the proliferation of these herbal centers.How? By the advertisements they run for them because they sponsor a program or two for them.