Warning, possible fat-related wankiness ahead

[redfiona99]

Okay, so people want London to bring in a obesity-related anti-discrimination law. And I am cool with that. It may well be a good idea.

What I am not cool with is this:

"The San Francisco ordinance says you [the doctor] may want to mention weight to the patient but if the patient says they do not want to talk about that then you are asked to respect those wishes."

Guess what people, if a Doctor needs to discuss your weight it is normally for a good reason in that it is either unhealthily low or high, because I'm overweight (70 kg on five foot four is overweight) and he's never bothered me about it because most doctors are sane enough to realise that there's a difference between being overweight and heading to the land of 'this will make you ill'.

I am also aware that most doctors do any mentioning with the grace of a collapsing duck, but they're doing it for your own good.

For fuck's sake people, if you are not willing to talk about your medical problems with a doctor, don't go to the doctor. They may be an arsehole but they're primary concern is your health and well-being. If they are unable to talk about that, I'm pretty sure that's making them break their Hippocratic oath, or variant thereon, because letting someone continue to do/be without mentioning it is totally doing harm. For example, if I go to the doctor and say I regularly use illegal drugs, then they will say that I should stop. They won't tie me to a chair and make me stop, but if I ask for help they'll tell me who to get in contact with, because that's their job. Especially at GP level, preventative medicine is a large part of their Sissiphian task.

The article that set me off is here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8314125.stm

Comments

[wishtheworst.livejournal.com]

I can't speak to what happens or will happen in an English context, but over here I know quite a few people who feel their doctors have either stepped over the line with weight or have ignored actual problems they're having because "it must be weight-related." For example, when I was having my gallbladder out, my doctor told me that after the surgery I would likely need to avoid a lot of fried foods, because apparently people often can't process fats as easily without a gallbladder. He told me that would be good anyway, because then I could get a handle on my high cholesterol and bring it down to an acceptable level. Which sounds like great advice, except that I've always had very low cholesterol levels despite my weight and it said so right on my chart. So like I said, over here we have quite a few doctors who do diagnose via appearance.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

That's very true. I think that's one of the advantages of our death panels, if we want, we can change doctor without worrying if they accept our insurance.

[wishtheworst.livejournal.com]

Totally why I am 100% pro death panel!