why do patients leave doctors

On Being a Patient Why do patients leave Doctors?

The effects of emotional and social distress on the utilization of medical service appear to be most marked in chronically ill patients who express the ‘mast skepticism’ about the benefits of medical care but also seek medical help most frequently.

The dissatisfied patient:

A patient is dissatisfied if a physician fails to be patient to listen to all the complaints of  the patients. If the doctor is not willing to spend adequate time with the patient, if the doctor fails to give satisfactory answers to the questions of the patient; if doctor fails to convince the patient about the diagnosis; When a physician fails to arrive at the diagnosis at the earliest, when a physician asks the patient to undergo unnecessary and collaborative investigations which are costly.

 

A patient is also dissatisfied if he is reluctant to accept the diagnosis the physician has made and when the patient is made to wait for a prolonged period of time to see the doctor. A hypochondriac patient is one who has no physical illness but suffers from the symptoms of physical illness and firmly believes that s/he has physical illness, These patients are not satisfied with any doctor and do “doctor shopping’ as they are never satisfied.

Dissatisfied Physician:

Trained to deal with diseased systems or organs, to look for physical signs and symptoms, to rely on x-ray and laboratory evidence of physical disease, many physicians are uncomfortable with the “softer” evidence of emotional difficulty. Some of the doctors are ‘busy”, their continued professional care, prolonged working hours, irregular food habits, inadequate sleep, being unable to devote sufficient time with the family members make them “irritable”. And this irritability may be expressed both towards their family members and patients.