 |
 |
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> > Graham Ross wrote: > It is unfortunate, as I > indicated in my letter which I think they have published this week, that > the debate that was developed was the overdone and dreadfully boring > "ambulance chasing lawyers" one. What, like the overdone and dreadfully boring "GPs over-prescribe antidepressants" one? I think the reason most doctors find class actions hard to take is purely a conceptual one: except in the case of vaccs and imms, there is seldom a direct link between a GP prescribing and a profit motive (in some ways, the link is theoretically a negative one - prescribing for a patient costs money and the capitation fee is wiped out pretty quickly if you prescribe SSRIs). On the other hand, lawyers earn their money directly on the basis of fee for service. This, almost universally, is what irritates doctors about lawyers. As a lawyer of my aquaintance put it "try asking a solicitor or barrister about the morality of the cases they bring and lose - our profession almost always rationalises these as a failure to present the evidence the right way - if we didn't believe that deep down we either wouldn't take the case on in the first place or we would suffer deep depression every time we defended a rape case and lost." This kind of rationale leads to the "White Knight" philosophy/presentation without which some in the legal profession would find it hard to do their job. If you begin to appreciate the random way in which justice is administered and compare it with the random way in which people seek healthcare the parallels become uncomfortably apparent! In the US, the whole thing has degenerated into a kind of game, where no-one minds so much being sued any more, because it is part of the job - doctors and lawyers feel pretty much the same about making money out of patients. It seems only fair in a bizarre kind of way. About the only thing this tacit understanding has failed to do, and will fail to do, is to make doctors love lawyers. For some reason, the lawyers (convinced that they are doing the right thing), fail to understand why doctors (convinced they are doing the right thing) view them as low life. If the arguments above are correct, this situation will remain as long as doctors and lawyers exist! Andrew :) -------------------------------------------------- Dr. Andrew N. Herd MRCGP General Practitioner & Journalist Medical Adviser to County Durham Health Commission [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%