A complaint about doctors

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I don’t have many experiences in seeing doctors in a western country. When I was living in Australia between 2001 and 2013, I was young and had no illnesses other than Schizophrenia. During that period of time I rarely went see the doctors other than those psychiatrists. Now I live in China and am aging. I started having various diseases such as hypothyroidism, dry eyes, and Reflux Esophagitis. I went to see the doctors frequently. From my experiences with these doctors, I found that the skills of the doctors in China are impaired by the medical systems.

In China we don’t have GPs like it does in Australia. When we feel ill, rather than going to a GP, we go to big hospitals to a doctor that is specialized in certain medicine areas such Ophthalmology or Gastroenterology. The doctors in a specific area are classified into two categories: a specialist or a nonspecialist. The specialists are fewer in number than the nonspecialists. They charge high registration fees and the patients can see them continuingly. But most nonspecialist doctors see their patients randomly because when the patients want to get registered to the nonspecialist doctors they have no option to see a specific doctor. It is allocated randomly. The nonspecialist doctors sit in an office room and deal with the patients one by one. Usually they spent 5-10 minutes on one patient. After having given diagnosis and prescriptions, that nonspecialist doctor probably will never see the specific patient again .

This medical system impedes the progress of skills of the nonspecialist doctors, because they can not make a follow-up observation on their patients and accumulate valuable experiences. Also, they are too busy to do decent researches on a topic.

Anyway, when I went to these nonspecialist doctors I found many of them were kind yet incompetent. It is a hit and miss if you can have your illness skillfully treated.

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sorry to hear that, i pray you can find a good doctor who knows about your conditions.

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My psychiatrist is with me between 15 to 30 minutes.

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Thanks a lot for your kindness. It’s good that I have this forum to vent.

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15-30 minutes sounds long enough to make discussions between you and your Pdoc.

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My psychiatrist gives me four minutes.

I see her once in year ..

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My psychiatrist literally gives me no more than 4 minutes if that.

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Mine gives me half an hour usually, she takes her time and she listens to me and cares about my quality of life

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Mine sees me for 20 minutes approximately

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I see my doctor once in a blue moon, but then again I might be a difficult patient, so that figures. :face_with_head_bandage:

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I see a psychiatrist every month or two, for about 10-20 mins. As I’m in govt health system (in South Africa) I see different drs almost every time. They change drs every six months in outpatients clinic I go to, and there’s usually three available which I go to randomly. I saw one twice and then the next time I saw one of the others. It’s irritating having to explain to new drs my situation especially when I am in a relapse!

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I see my doctor for an hour and a nurse for an hour when getting my depot.

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@Wave @Milk A 4 minutes visiting and talking is too short for a decent follow-up observation and monitoring. Lazy psychiatrists!

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You are lucky to have such a caring and responsible Pdoc. Envy you.

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That’s fair enough.

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I’m sorry you haven’t get enough care from the psychiatrist. Maybe you can change to another Pdoc.

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My pdoc and pa are awesome. I just complain that really not that much is known about schizophrenia

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I can understand. This is inconvenient and uncomfortable. Sorry you have to bear it.

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Sounds like you are receiving good care from the professional staff in medical field.

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That’s nice. Happy for you.

I found joining Sz forums is a good way to get the knowledge of schizophrenia.

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