Who else – other than FPs – can they blame, Melissa?

My colleague, Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, wrote a wonderful article (“Stop blaming family doctors”), and I felt I also have something to say about that too but from the receiving side. There is an Eastern proverb that says: The wall falls on whoever is beside it. If I sit beside a weak wall, I deserve the damage which can be caused if it falls, especially if I know that its foundation is weak and fragile and that the surrounding atmosphere does not suggest stability or comfort. When a soldier accepts the danger of being exposed in the enemy's field without protection or a plan of protection, he will be injured or lose his life simply and without leaving any trace. When an employee is content to be rich material for jokes and ridicule without having a voice to defend himself or even complain, he will fade away. And when the soil is unproductive, and becomes a passage for everyone and everything to pass over, it will never be a source of livelihood and production. When a person loses his value inside his home, he will be worthless outside it—even if he pretends to be strong and sober, because it will only be a temporary empty boast like a flying mist that does not wet anyone. When a father humiliates his kids, everyone will find it easy to humiliate them. Read: Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes: Dear Doctor Rude Yes, Melissa Yes Melissa, we, family physicians, are subjects for blame, reprimand, insults, underpayment and other things. If senior family physicians open their fire against other family physicians then we can’t expect others to defend or respect us. We are like the first step in a staircase: the ascendant and the descender tramp on it. When we are broke, no one fixes us. When we get tired, no one comforts us. But when we struggle, everyone stabs us. If a family physician blames another family physician then why do we expect others to respect us? Our defenders If a family medicine journal publishes an article full of allegations against family doctors then what do we think others would think of us? If our brothers defame us, people will believe that we are bad and evil because the besmirch came from people inside our family. If we don’t have anyone to represent and defend us, we can expect the darts to come from everyone—including our family physician colleagues who don’t practice family medicine. We agreed to sit beside a broken cracked wall and to be the first step in the staircase so we expected to receive the darts. This is an endless problem and with no solution. So even if you ask them to stop blaming us, they may stop today but will resume their blame tomorrow because it simply makes them feel better. So let them feel better as it is our goal to make people feel better. Editing note: An earlier version of this article referred to family doctors as the “last” step on a staircase but that was an editing error; “first” step is what was meant. Dr. Jabir Jassam is a family physician who works at Health Treasure Medical Center in Ottawa.

Who else – other than FPs – can they blame, Melissa?

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