The latest fad is to post photos and videos of female doctors online and ask people to rate their attractiveness. Which one's hottest, Doctor Deborah or Doctor Alison?
Apparently it's okay for patients to video their consultations, for instance to record baby scans or their child's first GP appointment or help them remember what was discussed or what treatment was recommended.
But some patients are making videos, sometimes without express permission, and then staging online beauty contests. Doctors revealed their alarm at the British Medical Association's annual meeting.
What sort of people think this is acceptable? A doctor's life is hard enough without their being subject to a sleazy online parlour game - a game they may not even realise is happening unless someone tips them off.
Those idiots who think it's all very amusing fully deserve to be struck off their GP's list. Or perhaps to have their own attractiveness, or lack of it, rated by a bunch of uninhibited women.
It's never even occurred to me to video my consultations. They can be quite detailed, but I do my best to remember everything that comes up and make a note immediately afterwards of what the doctor said. That seems to work very well - my note always includes the most important points.
I assume a doctor can contact Twitter or Facebook or whatever and ask for the offending images to be removed, but maybe that's not the case.
My own doctor (that's Dr Joanne) is very competent and very thorough. What she looks like is of no significance.
I think it is also kind of creepy because any doctor can examine your most private parts and touch your body and it really has to be kept separate from whether or not they are gorgeous. It could really compromise their license if some lunatic gets obsessed with their local gorgeous doc, of either sex.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of that. I thought that most medical offices ban the use of camera/video for fear of lawsuits. Maybe that has changed.
ReplyDeleteI do know that the website, Rate My Professor, has a hotness rating (among other more studious ratings). There are no photos, it's just based on their actual students' opinions. I thought it was dumb, but that's just immature kids for you! Adults rating doctors is definitely more disturbing.
Jenny: It's very creepy. And yes, obsessive attention or stalking (which no doubt does happen) would be even worse than beauty ratings.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: There must be different protocols on photos and videoing in the States. I've heard of Rate My Professor, which must be just as disturbing to lecturers who (maybe unfairly) are picked on as useless.
That is revolting. (Turns back and walks away.)
ReplyDeleteJoanne: I couldn't agree more. Have these men (I presume it's men) no idea of civilised behaviour?
ReplyDeletehas the world gone mad?
ReplyDeleteI mean what has happened to scruples and any kind of dignity?
not to mention integrity!
this is totally ridiculous.
if it's happening here then I have been living under a rock!
but then... maybe I have. the scarier and more weird it all gets the more I retreat.
That's amazing! :(
ReplyDeleteTammy: Bijoux says taking photos or videos is generally not allowed in the States, which probably explains why you haven't hear of this particular trend. Scary and weird is about right.
ReplyDeleteJean: Amazingly sick and perverted.
Seems anything anyone can think up to do to attract attention somebody does. With so much more public sharing on the internet there seem to be no boundaries either.
ReplyDeleteJoared: Exactly, it's just attention-seeking with no thought whatever for their innocent victims.
ReplyDeleteI'm appalled. I can see taping a consultation, but filming it is beyond the bounds. My wife and I always go to the doctor together so that we can work together to get all the necessary information.
ReplyDeleteSnowbrush: That's our practice as well. Jenny and I both go together if it looks like there'll be a lot of detailed discussion and some of it might not register.
ReplyDeleteI have not come across this phenomenon but, if it does exist, I would call it nuts. My GP is a male, a good friend and an amazing human being. I can't ever imagine being able to write about him in terms other thank praise and the last thing that I would say about him is his appearance.
ReplyDeleteRamana: It's just a lot of insecure males trying to put women in their place by publicly humiliating them. It's sad, childish and pathetic.
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible! How do people even come with these ideas? How a doctor looks doesn't matter, at all. And it's just wrong to video someone without their consent, or to use the video in a different way than what they agreed to.
ReplyDeleteMy mum's doctor was put away for taking secret pictures of his younger patients. Everyone should leave their cameras alone! Enough with all the intrusion!
ReplyDeleteSx
Danielle: I guess they come up with these ideas because they're men and they think rating women's looks is "a bit of a laugh". They wouldn't think that if they were the ones being rated.
ReplyDeleteScarlet: Indeed, there's quite enough intrusion. Especially for women. Up-skirting, down-blousing, secret videoing and all the rest. I see some guy was trying to take up-skirt pictures with a secret camera in his shoe, and the shoe exploded! What an arsehole.
ReplyDeleteI would fire a patient who did that to me.
ReplyDeleteAgent: Quite right too.
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