Renuka, playing dumb is so hard (on yourself). Why couldn't you have simply said, "I felt the amniotic fluid was less". Anyway, your decision as a doctor to send away the patient to a specialist was very wise indeed. So why should you let someone represent you in poor light? But that said, I have to admit, even I play dumb many, many times. Like when it comes to the mistakes of others I never fight. But reach for the quickest way out, like a peace treaty. Many people in situations where they are wronged would rather argue and fight, but not me! I am the good samaritan 'who always understands'!! But I have noticed that indicating your dissatisfaction under such circumstances makes you get noticed, so you won't be treated the same way again. Therefore I am working on this skill.. to get more assertive.
Dear JR,
You have no idea how some specialist can be when dealing with another doctor that too with a GP.
Once I had referred a case to the hospital..a very regular patient of mine who suddenly had a very bad attack of asthma for the 1st time ever!
The hospital surprisingly diagnosed her a having TB.
Then the hospital asked me to start TB treatment which they provided.
Deep down inside I doubted the diagnosis and sure enough my patient started having severe side effects towards the medication.I also felt the patient did not display signs of TB.
So I referred her to another consultant for a 2nd opinion and he said that we should follow the 1st diagnosis at the hospital becos the sputum test of the slide was positive!(so much for a 2nd opinion)
Then I sent the patient back to the 1st hospital and stated my reasons why I feel its not TB and to my surprise the consultant called me up and fired me.
She asked me "You are only a GP! I am a TB specialist who studied in Englad..do you think that you can be actually smarter than me in this field?"
I told her that 'Its not a matter of who is smarter but this patient has been under my care for years and to me she never seemed the type who would display TB at all..I still feel some error happened somewhere cos the X ray is normal..and blood parameters are normal and only the slide of positive..but even though the slide being positive is enough for TB diagnosis but I still have a feeling may be some error happened in the slide reading becos she is getting severe side effects to all medication..it just seems to be there is no TB bacteria for the medications to act on..hence severe reactions to it"
That was it..she got real mad with me and told the patient that I am not a good doctor and I must be not keen to treat a TB patient becos there is not much profit one makes when just carrying out treatment supplied by the hospital.
But thank god my patient knew that I am not the type who thinks of money only.
Then the case was referred to another specialist where the specialist thought of re checking the slide.
Then it was found out that the technician who read the slide read it wrongly and the patient never had TB to start with!
The patient did not sue the hospital becos the patient was a staunch buddhist who did not want to cause harm for anyone.
So after that incident..even though I was right..yet I had to endure all the insults by other doctors..so I decided that I will play dumb with them the next time without jeopradizing the patient.