Ask Dr. Gott on Medical Arrogance

Peter Gott, MD on Medical Arrogance

In this morning's newspaper, Dr. Peter Gott who writes the column "Ask Dr. Gott" announced that his column will no longer be available for newspapers, but will only be on his website.  In today's column he reviews what he feels has made his column successful.

"Perhaps part of my success stems from the fact I admit I'm human.  ...I did and still do refer to physicians as being arrogant, pompous, egocentric, and irrationally independent. We pontificate, are self righteous, impatient, and materialistic, have obsessions for fast and expensive cars, believe we are infallible, a step above most people and entitled to fringe benefits and large investment portfolios because of the MD behind our names."

Dr. Gott's description while not true of all MDs and DOs, painfully hits the mark for far too many.  The arrogant attitude described is carried on into the hospitals and medical centers in which they work.

These days most of these organizations are non-profit, and increasingly employ their own doctors. But don't let the word "non-profit" fool you.  These institutions are structured to render maximum income for the doctors and administrators who use tax free offices and equipment paid for by the public. These are usually the most profitable business in an area with the highest paid top employees, the doctors. 

These institutions resist any meaningful disclosure about finances and operations except where forced to by the US government.  They resist public accountability and carefully control information flow allowing only the "spin" by their public relations department to be released. Since they are so powerful, and exert so much influence, no newspaper dares dig deeply into their finances and operations.

In spite of huge profits and back breaking fees, these institutions still arrogantly ask the public to volunteer to run certain programs and make donations so they can buy more equipment and build more buildings. This allows them to charge higher fees and make more tax free money.

Thanks to Dr. Gott who over the years always treated natural remedies sent in by his readers with respect even though they were not the medically "sanctioned" treatment. He admits that he does not know it all and realizes there may be some validity in  alternate remedies. We will miss his column.

More to come,

Dr. Don Selvidge

Action for Affordable Healthcare  (aah)