The Doctor

The Doctor

Here is a film that portrays what happens to one member of the medical community when he faces problems normally confronted by patients. The doctor is a cool, self-centered surgeon who is in total control of his successful life until he is diagnosed as having cancer of the throat. Then he finds himself subject to the negligence, indifference, and humiliations which he has put his own patients through.

Over the course of the movie, code of ethics and patient rights are violated time and time again. The doctors are roaming the hospital halls discussing patients' charts openly in the general public. There are doctors being blatantly cold and unattached from patients and the emotional distress that they are in do to their illness or condition. Doctors are asking other doctors to lie about mis diagnosis or procedures in order to avoid malpractice law suits. Medical procedures are being done on the wrong patients due to charts being wrong or misread.

The doctor learns what it is like to be treated like a number, a practice he has been guilty of. He treated his patients with aggressive sarcasm and general disrespect. A prime example of this, was when the doctor had a patient who he had operated on, came in for an appointment for a follow up. With blatant disregard for the patient's dignity the doctor disrobed her fully to view the scars from a heart surgery. The patient asked about the severity of the scars and the doctor made a very rude and inappropriate comment saying, " Tell your husband you have the body of a playboy pin up girl and have the staples to prove it."

These practices were very common among hospitals in general and which is why the code of ethics and the patient's bill of rights came about. Remember to ask yourself how would you like to be treated if you were the patient, because one day it could be you.