The responsibility of patients to Medical advice

On Being a Patient The Responsibility of Patient's Medical Advice

When a superbly trained doctor follows a careful history and an array of diagnostic tests with a cursory rundown of findings and recommendation during a brief talk with the patients, the result can be an exercise in futility. The patient’s spouse who might otherwise support the medical advice is not utilized on behalf of the physician’s efforts.

 

Family members may even be alienated by the inadequate attention given to them. The patient may be too anxious to hear clearly, or even to know what questions to ask and to leave the doctor unconvinced or confused or both. The sense is set for rejection of the medical advice.

 

Some patients never buy the prescribed medicines, some buy the prescribed drugs and take more or less than instructed, some other patients consume the prescribed medicines in inadequate dosage contrary to doctor’s advice, while some other patients do not complete the course of the treatment and discontinue in the middle. The prescribed medicine may seem too costly or it had not made the patient feel better or there are unpleasant side effects or there seems no need to finish the prescribed course of medication.

 

Many patients will not ask questions out of fear of annoying the doctor or because they do not want to appear “dumb” or because the advice seems impossible to follow. Such patients are very likely to leave doctor frustrated and fearful. They have not been “helped’ and may be resentful. The physician to such an extent may also become frustrated, particularly when they reject the medical advice or fail to show up at the next appointment.

 

Patients may be sincere in their wish to get better, and the doctor equally sincere in wanting a successful outcome. But failure to come to a working understanding can frustrate the achievement of their shared goal and improved health for the patient. Signing out against medical advice, missed appointments, failure to follow a regimen, or to take the medicines, all waste the physician time, generate frustration among medical personnel, and lead to needless deterioration in patient’s health.