Like George Carlin said, somewhere there is the worst doctor and someone has an appointment with them tomorrow!

It's a valid strategy to ask the patient to recap what brings them to the clinic. It's very common to hear a different story from the one in the booking system or in the medical history. I'm not sure about the system were you live but medical history often takes waaaaaaaaaay more than 2 min to read up on. Maybe the last visit was recorded and had yet to been transcribed? Those can be a pain to listen to. It feels very reasonable that the doctor didn't have time to read up on your history if they were covering for a sick/unavailable colleague.

I would 100% prefer a doctor that is upfront about not knowing my medical history over a (more commonly occurring) dumbass pretenting to know it.

It's regrettable that your doctor made you feel neglected. Fault them for that, not the questions.

Edit: *recorded as in dictated!

Medical clinics are often overbooked, like airports. This is why they give you an appointment time that is generally thirty minutes early. ONE late person fucks the entire day’s schedule after their appointment time, that’s how tightly management insists on arranging it. Even the extra time slots of the past are being booked or even double booked in advance of the day. Docs are often given 10-15min per patient. Those other rooms you see in the hall? There are patients inside waiting for doc to go down the line, as staff keeps refilling those rooms down the line as the doc finishes. You think there’s time to read between? Oh you sweet summer child. That’s not on docs, that’s on corporate. Whatever company logo is stamped on the clinic and also on the nearby hospital, they’re the ones making it happen that way. Why? More patients crammed into each day means more $$$. Quantity over quality. Clinic docs are also paid by patient encounter. So this works together to arrange what we in healthcare commonly call a clusterfuck.

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This is the part that’s probably messing with you most. And it likely won’t change. In medical, the assessment is sacrosanct. And your own. You MUST do it yourself. You don’t just go with the assessment of the first person to do one and never check again, you always check again. Always. Every visit. A lot can change in half a day. A day. A week. A month. And the quality of assessment changes with each person. Each person. Medical isn’t robots, it’s people, and most data collection happens through people. Each medical staff, doc or NP or RN or PA, gets their own assessments before they begin, unless they’re utter garbage at their jobs. This doctor never assessed you before, which means, they MUST assess you now, per their licensing. Also, a good chunk of what’s in the chart is old news. What’s right in front of you contains the best data about the patients present state. And the speed at which a clinic is to move from patient to patient, 2 min to read a chart isn’t part of the schedule. Even logging in these days can take half that 10min time slot due to old crappy computers. Sure stuff like moms medical history, what tests you’ve had already, and meds (pharmacies e-record talks to your medical e-record these days) is current, but your present state changes day to day and asking YOU what’s happening today is usually best practice and the most accurate. There’s no day prep time to a clinic day and no one takes “homework” home after work. It’s hit the ground running and just start diving into appointments. When the doc knows the patient already ofc this goes more smoothly because the doc knows the bigger picture. That’s why there’s an assigned doc for each patient.

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All the NPs being trained makes the process more difficult. Heavy revolving door there as they do their version of residency and then poof they’re gone to find their actual job.

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Wait until you’re admitted to a hospital from an emergency room, you’ll be in for a real treat. /s.

cops if you're quick 🤣

But also, make sure you have good reason to not like the doctor, regardless of financial implications. A doctor giving you bad news or making an honest but unflattering comment is an easy situation to want to leave, but bailing on that situation is not a good solution.

I'm not trying to say one should never take a stand, just that they should make sure of their reasoning before doing so.

While true and valid, also remember that your community can be a problem, or you might be suffering from systemic issues. Not all issues stem from individuals, and some are impossible to solve on the personal level. If you find yourself in the cult, for example, walking away is probably the best you could do, despite the scorn of the community.

Can you? He likes to sue people who do that.

On the hand other

But why maintain bridges to places where you don't want to go?

There are ways to extricate yourself without causing offense.

It's easy to quit something toxic, but how do you quit something where all people are well-meaning and friendly and trying to help you, but you are autistic and they simply don't understand what that is? (And you also don't know you are autistic yourself yet)

That was my first uni where I dropped out at winter.

Nope. In medical, you educate and advise, the patient decides. Then it’s documented and you move on to the next patient.

In diabetes this is often seen as a foot that is now getting amputated after years of noncompliance with medical advice, but again, all you can do is educate. People decide their own actions for themselves.

I was at the dentist today. Second time they made me wait more than 30 minutes. Aside from that they asked for a much higher payment than I agreed to just one week earlier.

I got up and told them I'm leaving and they can keep the money. The apologized profusely and convinced me to stay. They did get me in and out very quickly after that.

I doubt I will go back for the second half of the work.

Also happened when I took my 5 year old son to the dentist. The doctor's policy was that no parents are allowed on the treatment room. I told my son to get out of the chair and left. Turned out that dentist was trying to put fillings in teeth that would fall out before fillings were even needed.

Marketing perhaps?

Hyperfixation.

Idk, running from unpleasant truths isn't great either, so be careful that you're not just shopping for a convenient diagnosis and instead looking for the truth. A second or third opinion is absolutely a good idea if you think your doctor is missing something (esp. if they refuse to run a test you think is necessary). Just remember that this goes both ways, so that doctor that tells you what you want to hear could be missing what the others have seen.

In other words, don't mistake hubris for confidence.