Or would you be irked too - it’s a doctor one

[Thisisnotlikehim]

Just took my mum to an appointment. She is in her 70s. Doctor said that they wanted to do a different kind of scan. My mum asked why. She is very anxious about her health. Doctor said ‘for my own curiosity’. My mum asked why again. I also asked if it was to check for changes or had she seen something. I explained my mum gets anxious. Doctor said ‘if I had to explain to all my patients then …’ I didn’t catch the end of the sentence. But basically she wouldn’t say why she wanted the scan. I asked if we’d get feedback about the results. She said yes if there is something to talk about.

It’s left my mum worrying that the doctor spotted something. I then have to reassure her. It’s very annoying. AIBU?

@Mumoftwotoddlers are you ok hun?

OP of course your mum has a right to know why the dr has requested a scan. This is mad, why wouldn't they just explain?

The doctor should have told her what it's for. Very patronising.

I wouldn't have left until she'd explained.

Don't be so rude @Mumoftwotoddlers
Yes @Thisisnotlikehim the Dr should have explained why

Complain OP. That is ridiculous. Are you in the UK? If you are complain both to PaLs and the GMC. The doctor has not explained the reasons for the procedure therefore has not gained informed consent. That is a very serious issue.

@Mumoftwotoddlers really? You’d be happy to have something done to you without knowing why? I’m seriously worried for you.

Oh dear. Looks like "informed consent" / joint decision making and your mum's doctor are strangers.

It's their job to explain why a procedure would be benificial for your mum, what the alternatives are, and what would happen if she did nothing.

I’m a GP. I don’t know if it was GP or secondary care Dr your mum saw, but the requestor should always be able to give a reason for doing an investigation, and ‘for my own curiosity’ is not an acceptable one.
It can sometimes take a bit more time to explain things, and in a very time pressured environment that can be frustrating if the patient has a lot of questions. However, in my view, good communication is part of the job, and a basic explanation should really not take that much time.

Informed concent is NHS policy. Complain.

I wouldn't consent to a scan just to satisfy a doctor's curiosity.

@Thisisnotlikehim @Myusernamehistoryislong
Sorry, having a bad day, my post was rude and inappropriate. I will keep quiet until I'm in a better frame of mind

Not only should your mother be told what the scan is for, she should also be told the possible negative effects of having the scan (if any) so that she can make an informed decision on whether to have it. Without knowing the risks v the benefits she cannot posibly give informed consent.

It's literally a doctor's job to do that, and she could have done it in the time it took her to avoid doing it.

YANBU.

Your mum has every right to know what is going in with her health and why she should go through the rigmarole of having a scan.

I can't speak for anyone else but my imagination would run riot with that lack of information and catastrophize. No wonder your mum felt anxious!

It would have taken the GP 5 seconds to do the generic 'It's probably nothing/ highly unlikely it's anything serious but I need to do a check to rule out x y or z' instead of being patronizing and evasive.

I am saying this as someone who had a parent get shocked by the results of what they were led to believe was a routine blood test where the GP didn't say they were checking for diabetes, and didn't explain my parent's symptoms pointed to that. It caused a lot of unnecessary stress and upset instead of preparing us for what was a likely outcome.

Well done for apologising.

It was very unprofessional to say that a scan was 'for his own curiosity.' Your mum isn't a guinea pig to be experimented on.

I would complain and insist on an explanation of why the doctor considered a scan to be of benefit.

Thanks so much all. And TBH my mum
could do with ‘growing a pair’ so to speak but for the time being she still gets very anxious.

Does it make a difference that this was an opthamologist and it was an extra two minute scan of her optic nerves? I was trying to be vague as could be outing as I’m sure I’ll share this with people IRL but I can see that the assumption is that it’s a GP and a body scan.

She is having injections in her eyes and so feels very vulnerable so I’m not sure she’ll want to complain yet.

Mumoftwotoddlers thanks for apologising. I get a bit frustrated internally with her too though so do t feel bad!!

Deleted

Speeds thank you for calling out rudeness but just to let you know that poster has apologised.

She wanted to do an extra scan of her optic nerves? Her reply should have been that she was just checking to make sure everything is nice and healthy. Not her own interest. Ob needs some work on bedside manner

Hankunamatata

Yes that would have been better. The difficulty was that mum had been in the scan room (it’s a conveyer belt - different rooms for different parts of the process) and the doctor sent her back to the scan room after looking at her other notes and the basic scan. So in my mums head now she spotted something bad. No amount of reassuring helps. The doctor wouldn’t explain why at all.

That is breaking nhs policy of informed consent as pps have said.

Report them.