Saturday, 4th July 2009
Couple claim consultant withheld treatment
A medical consultant at Mater Dei Hospital refused to treat a patient after he was told she used to visit a Chinese masseuse, according to a judicial protest.
Anna Maria Dougall, accompanied by her husband Joseph, went to Mater Dei Hospital to seek relief from pain she suffered after her arm was removed from plaster on June 16.
The couple said they had called at the Orthopaedic Outpatients Clinic and the doctor on duty removed the plaster applied three weeks earlier and decided that it would be better if her arm were seen by consultant Massimo Abela.
When Dr Abela showed up, Mrs Dougall said she was still in pain and occasionally sought treatment from a Chinese masseuse in an effort to ease it. The Dougalls claimed that, on hearing this, Dr Abela stopped treating Mrs Dougall and told her not to return to hospital. He also told her it was up to her to get used to the pain.
The couple said Mrs Dougall had every right to use the free medical services at Mater Dei and Dr Abela had no right to deny her his services just because he disagreed with alternative medicine.
While Dr Abela had a right to express his opinion and give advice, he had no right to be arrogant, more so when a patient was seeking assistance because of a pain she was feeling, the Dougalls said.
Lawyer Rachel Bonello signed the protest.
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Comments
My family and I are there to back and support.
Keep up your good work
A doctor is legally bound to do his best in treating a patient. If a consultant, who is high up in the medical hierarchy feels that he has done his very best and nothing further can be done to alleviate the pain, or for valid legitimate reasons he feels that the patient should not be under his further care, then he should communicate this with the patient well either verbally or in writing.
The patient has the right to seek free alternative specialist advice whether in the same hospital if available or elsewhere. It is certainly difficult to ascertain what has happened from this report. There seems to have been a serious communication problem and hurted feelings due to this.
It is a sad if a normal complaints procedure was not followed and the claimant jumped into litigation straight away. Court proceedings are costly and can cause a lot of unwaranted distress.
Nonetheless I do feel I should utter my observation to the fact that up to not long ago a doctor used to take the initiative to follow up on a patient by usually placing a call to the family residence the day or so after his/her visiting the patient. That caring custom has completely disappeared today and has been replaced by front-office desk procedures instead, Modern medicine has replaced good not-so-old fashioned courtesy. But one thing hasn't changed, alas in Malta its either black or white, from one extreme to another.
Doctors have every right to stop treating a patient if they feel that their advice is not being followed. They are, however, also obliged to suggest and find another doctor who can continue treating their patient.
When a Consultant is prescribing a medicine or clinical treatment, from his perspective he is doing so with a view of a course of treatment that leads to recovery.
If the patient decides to interfere this treatment by seeking alternative medicine, than it is only fair that the Consultant has a right to refuse further treatment if he deems that alternative medicine is conflicting with his clinical treatment and if in his view may lead to deterioration in the patient's condition.