NHS doctors comment

[RaindropsRainbows]

I saw an NHS consultant today, and during the consultation, as he was taking notes and going through my medical history, he asked what I did for a living. I told him I worked for an investment bank. He looked at me and said, “Oh, you must be very rich.” I replied, “Haha, not as rich as you think.” After the consultation, he mentioned that I would need medication and asked if I wanted a prescription. I said yes, please. Then, he told me that I could also buy the medication over the counter and added that NHS shouldn’t be subsidizing rich bankers like me. Is this normal? Are prescriptions now based on your job? I could be working in an investment bank’s canteen washing dishes for minimum wage (I am not but that’s not the point). AIBU?

He's got a point. I had to see the GP about a skin condition and she wrote me a prescription which turned out to be a cream I could have bought over the counter myself. I realised too late, after I'd picked up the prescription. I'm almost certainly not as wealthy as someone who works in an investment bank, but I'm lucky enough to be able to buy my own non-prescription products and I do what I can to support the NHS.

Where I work we don’t prescribe things available over the counter unless there’s a financial issue for the patient. It wouldn’t occur to me to get a script for something I can just purchase myself, as I’m financially able to do so.

It’s not ok to comment on someone’s job or to make assumptions about their income however. There are also people who appear wealthy but who are drowning in debt or subject to financial abuse. You really can’t tell much about someone from hearing what their job is.

I'm a GP. It was inappropriate for him to comment on your income, but the point is correct that if it is available without prescription, you and everyone else should buy it, according to NHS rules. We are extremely pressurised by the powers on high to stop prescribing over the counter products. All GPs bend the rules, sometimes because it's the morally right thing to do such as an asylum seeker who has very little money, sometimes because the patient needs large quantities of eg paracetamol that they can't buy without multiple trips, sometimes yes because I don't have it in me for the inevitable argument yet again. However it doesn't actually sound like you did press for a prescription, he didn't need to mention it at all, he could've just said, this is the medicine which can be bought without any prescription. He shouldn't have brought your income into it, not unless/until you asked.

Yanbu op, I've had this too. Dh is a banker and I never ever say this to anyone because of these types of remarks. It's not really funny because you wouldn't say this about other professions. I'm just very vague about what dh does now.

It's for 2 reasons, 1 to get to know the patient as a person, holistic care and interest in your wellbeing etc, and 2 because occupations can have an impact on health. Manual labourers are going to get arthritis more often than sedentary desk workers, someone with exposure to dust might get lung disease, publicans have higher rates of alcoholism. You don't need to give details, just the broad idea of the type of toll on your body/brain.