6/28/2009

I want a doctor whose abilities I can have faith in not a doctor who wants to talk about faith

There are, according to the BBC, a large number of doctors who want to be able to talk to patients about God and their faith and are lobbying the GMC to allow them to do so. Personally, I would find this very worrying.

If I was going in to hospital I would want to be able to trust the doctor has the abilities to deal with my problems. I put my faith in the doctor and years of medical training. What I don't want is a doctor giving me the impression that he or she really does not have the skills to deal with my problem and instead relies on "divine intervention". In my view, if I have something so serious that the doctor cannot cure it, then this is extreme bad luck. But if he is telling me there is a god out there and I should pray to him, my response would be why would god curse me with the illness in the first place, which leads me to the very reason why I have no faith in any god in the first place.

I hope the GMC will realise that a doctor espousing praying is akin to telling a patient to "keep your fingers crossed" and gives patients no confidence in the ability of the doctor.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. If some doctors believed so fervently in a god, then I can see how it is natural for them to feel like they are helping. However for a large proportion of patients it would worry them more. And I think that it'd break the Hippocratic Oath anyway.

James Higham said...

What about a combination of doctor skills, faith and jolly good luck?

None of the above said...

Fine, as long as they don't mind hearing about my 'religion' in return.

What a retarded idea. We already have churches, mosques and synagogues for the unevolved retards amongst us.

Just thinking aloud again...

Matthew Huntbach said...

I have looked at the article you reference, and it does not say what you claim here it says. It says "NHS Staff", not "doctors", so I do not think it is meant primarily to cover doctors who launch into some religious message when you enter their surgery for a consultation, as you seem to be implying.

The article quotes the President of the National Secular Society at length, but does not clearly state what the issues are of those who will "tell" (propose a motion at its conference? it doesn't say) the BMA this. Two people are quoted, seemingly in favour, but their links to the doctors who are "demanding" from the BMA are not made clear.

I quite agree that any member of medical care staff offering a religious opinion unsolicited should not do so. However, if a patient opens a conversation and mentions a religious topic to a health care worker who the patient has reason to believe shares the same cultural background? Are we calling for Big Brother to jump in and say "No, you can't talk about that"?

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