Has respect between doctors gone with the wind?

Normal people rarely become arrogant. And most arrogant people are either mentally ill or having personality issues or, at least, not normal. When a person in a responsible position and uses that position to insult others, he is not worthy of the position. Respect is the foundation of relationships’ success. That respect may come before knowledge—for most of doctors’ problems are not purely lack of knowledge, as much as misbehaviour and mistreatment of their colleagues and patients. Read: Dr. Jabir Jassam: What if we could rate our patients and colleagues? Disrespectful letter I recently received a disrespectful and unprofessional letter from another doctor for a very silly and trivial reason. I replied to him and said: “I am genuinely concerned about your patients and the way you treat them if this is how you treat your colleagues.” Some family doctors let other doctors transgress and cross the line to the point of humiliation—not because they are weak, but because they are kind and their concern is to help their patients. Some colleagues, unfortunately, perceive family physicians’ silence as a sort of weakness—not politeness and kindness. Instead of backing off and changing their demeanours, these colleagues continue to overstep and disrespect their colleagues. Personally, I am absolutely convinced that doctors who treat colleagues with disrespect and unprofessionalism do the same with their patients, but patients turn a blind eye to transgression because their goal is to get help and feel better. Everyone realizes that the livelihood of these disrespectful specialists comes from consultations that they receive from family doctors, and if family doctors stop referring patients to them, many of them will be sitting in their offices counting bricks and tiles. These particular colleagues baffle me. It is as if they do not realize this and do not realize that we are aware of this but our insistence on referring patients to them is because we care about our patients more than we care about what they say or write. (which sometimes reaches the point of ridicule and mockery). Others violate our rights as much as we give them the opportunity to do so. If it happens once without deterrence, it will happen again. Dinner with a colleague I, recently, had dinner with one of my colleagues. We talked and vented about our challenges and among the things we talked about was the lack of respect in some specialists’ letters. My friend was very upset with one of the specialists who addressed her in a condescending and disrespectful manner. I asked her to read what he had written to her. She read it with shame because she felt that what that colleague had written her was an insult and a mockery—of her—and all family doctors. My friend is one of the nicest people I know. I have never seen patients like their doctors the way her patients like her. I asked her to send me a picture of what this colleague wrote and she sent me this from a screenshot: “I am always very surprised that primary care doctors do not understand the metabolism of psychotropic medications, and that most of them are metabolized by cytochrome P 450 enzymes. That should be a standard question when patients use cannabis. That way, they can be started on appropriate antidepressants that don’t have an interaction with THC or CBD.” This letter will be in the patient’s chart which will be reviewed perhaps one day by a lawyer, an insurance agent, a court, etc. What would people think and say about us if they saw how we communicate with each other? Would they respect us or our profession? Does it surprise us if they do not respect us? Fortunately, the number of these doctors is few, but one is enough to muddy the water. Perhaps they forgot that everyone in life has difficulties. And that the pressure of work does not exclude anyone. They should remember that we all live under one sky and on one earth. I would like to remind them that we are not different from each other and the only difference is the different opportunities that circumstances have given each of us. Therefore, this is an invitation to family doctors to stand for themselves and to not accept any disrespect or transgression and to discontinue referring patients to these disrespectful doctors until they know their mistakes and change their attitude and their way of communication and learn how to be respectful. None will stand for us. We deserve to be respected and it is one of our rights. None is allowed to disrespect or humiliate us. No one will stop and deter these few disrespectful doctors but us—because nothing rubs our skin like our nails. Dr. Jabir Jassam is a family physician in Ottawa.

Has respect between doctors gone with the wind?

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