Believers Health

Priority
By Rolando Suffos

How to select a good doctor should be a subject discussed at all educational levels.

If I were requested to give some help to facilitate such election I would say that any patient may give priority attention to the professional honesty of the person in whom he is going to trust. I would even say that honesty –except in really urgent situations– should be rated above technical capacity.

Here goes a clue, when a doctor adheres himself to probity of principles and practices he doesn't show any reticence in saying that certain case is outside the frontiers of his specialty, his experience, or knowledge. This could proof extremely helpful for a sick person who then, would have faster access to somebody with the necessary training to treat him better.

I must admit that our simple clue can not solve a complex problem. Choosing remains difficult mainly on account of the patient’s lack of medical knowledge. Not infrequently there are also problems affecting the medical side, because when going to the doctor a patient usually does so having a mental outline of what should be done, or diagnosed. Sometimes when the opinion of an upright doctor doesn’t follow a line of thinking similar, or parallel, to that firmly entertained by his case the physician can end being unduly underestimated by such a person.

In consequence a double fold risk arises: Our health seeking human being could fall into roguish professional's hands; and our honest doctor could be left without his client. In no few occasions, specially when a physician isn’t experienced or skillful enough as to discover which are his patient’s preconceived ideas, medical honesty has to pay a painful price.

But being capable of recognizing what his patient’s fixed opinions are doesn’t mean that such capable physician must become a liar. It only means that he must advance his opinion from the least conflictive position and just at the best possible moment.

Despite our good intentions, and those earmarks above mentioned, no patient can know for sure how many of the many doctors he has met or will meet were or are going to be fully honest. In the same way, no doctor can tell how many of the many patients he has seen or will see have appreciated or will duly appreciate his efforts.

Only God can know human hearts. Fortunately we are capable of choosing those lifestyles which can keep us away from medical doctors as professionals. But, there is something much more important: we can also make a free, biblically aided decision between eternal death and eternal life.

Copyright © 2007 Rolando Suffos.  All rights reserved.