Question For Sqad

[barry1010]

I think you've been retired for some years. How would you cope today if your patients told you they had googled their symptoms, diagnosed themselves and decided 'x' treatment is the best plan?

I imagine steam coming out of your ears :D

[Bazile]

He ENT retired - is he ?

[choux]

Genesis 1:28 ?

[barry1010]

I nose he is - but I don't nose how long he has been

[choux]

Sqad is not a has been!

[Sqad]

LOL.....barry please bear with an old man who's response is about to be a reply from Andy-Hughes without the eloquence that we have come to expect.

I qualified in 1959 and have spent every day of my life engrossed in and appreciating the study of Medicine and Surgery and although that sounds rather sugary, I do not apologise. During my time I have watched my interest and hobby turn from an art into a science, which is a good thing for the patient but hard for my generation of doctors to take. Instead of MRI scans, endoscopies, estimation of blood analysis, I had heroes who with their personality, charisma and use of their five senses would come to a diagnosis. Speaking to a patient, listening to them and making a diagnosis before a hand was laid upon them was poetry to my sense of appreciation.

Now to your question barry.
Dr Google has become a valuable tool to those who know what they are talking about and thirst for further knowledge, many patients who have a diagnosed condition will know as much if not more about their condition than the doctor.

Dr Google cannot give an opinion.

It would depend upon how a patient approached the consultation with advice pre-suggested by Dr Google.
If he/she came with a degree of humility and uneasiness then I would accept the input of the Internet.
However, if I was presented with a confrontational attitude then it would put my back up and I may (depending upon my mood at the time) react in an unhelpful way that only opinionated doctors can produce.

I recognise that is and always has been a part of my character which I regret.

So yes barry the Dr Google approach has a lot to offer, but I will never react favourably to those bloody links and websites that has desecrated and prostituted a profession that |I love and has given me a lifestyle of which has fulfilled my lifetime expectations.

[johnny.5]

Hi Sqad

did you take the Hippocratic oath ?
was it expected of you ?
do physicians still take it ?

[Sqad]

johnny......no, I have never taken the Hippocratic Oath and as far as I am aware, no medical students after qualification has taken the oath in the last 50 years or more.

[johnny.5]

thank you

[Bazile]

Am i correct in my post above ( did you get it ) that you are a ENT surgeon ?

[Buenchico]

A 1997 report in the British Medical Journal stated that 50% of UK medical schools used the Hippocratic oath.
[Hurwitz B, Richardson R. Swearing to care: the resurgence in medical oaths].

However, rather than dying out, its use seems to be on the increase. In 2017, 70% of UK medical school schools who responded to a questionnaire reported that they used some form of the Hippocratic oath.
[Green, B. Use of the Hippocratic or other professional oaths in UK medical schools in 2017: practice, perception of benefit and principlism. BMC Res Notes}

[Sqad]

Bazile...yes...a retired E.N.T surgeon.

Buenchico...thank you.......and not a link in sight -;)

[pat2604]

Sqad is my sort of doctor! He's done well for a former Head Hospital Porter!! Bless you Sqaddy!

[Bazile]

Were you the typical surgeon , who on his ward rounds, would have a line of scared juniors / interns following behind , scared to get the answer to a question from Mr Sqad , wrong ;-)

[Sqad]

Bazile......I was taught by making a fool of myself infront of others when being questioned and I continued this line of teaching....which would not be accepted today.

My commonest remark on the ward rounds to students and juniors was: "Come on doctor give me the bottom line, we haven't got all day".

I have been ridiculed more times that you have had hot dinners Bazile and it hasn't done me any harm.

[Vagus]

Did you always want to be a doctor, Sqad, or was there a lightbulb moment when you decided? How did it all come about??

[Buenchico]

>>> "I have been ridiculed more times that you have had hot dinners"

Yet still he comes here for more ;-)

[Sqad]

Vagus, wanted to be a doctor since the age of 12 after seeing how doctors were the main one's who had cars ;-)
Also, there was an area in my town called Thorpe Road with large houses where 3 or 4 doctors lived.

That lifestyle appealed to sqad.

Any excuse to go to A&E I would take and savour the atmosphere and in the evenings I would cycle to the hospital and wait outside A&E to get a glimpse of ambulances arriving ;-)

No light on the road to Jerusalem moment.

[anneasquith]

Sqad, I’m interested, are you the ear,nose or throat man ?

[Sqad]

anne ear, nose AND throat..............retired.

[barry1010]

Thanks for answering so fully, Sqad. I have great admiration for anyone who has achieved their ambitions, especially in such a highly skilled profession.

Were you ready to retire, were you counting the days looking forward to it?