Confessions of a British Doctor
THE UK’S BESTSELLING EBOOK OF 2011.Benjamin Daniels is angry. He is frustrated, confused, baffled and, quite frequently, very funny. He is also a GP. These are his confessions.A woman troubled by pornographic dreams about Tom Jones. An 80-year-old man who can't remember why he's come to see the doctor. A woman with a common cold demanding (but not receiving) antibiotics. A man with a sore knee. A young woman who has been trying to conceive for a while but now finds herself pregnant and isn't sure she wants to go through with it. A 7-year-old boy with 'tummy aches' that don't really exist.These are his patients.Confessions of a GP is a witty insight into the life of a family doctor. Funny and moving in equal measure it will change the way you look at your GP next time you pop in with the sniffles.
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BENJAMIN DANIELS
Confessions of a British Doctor
Table of Contents
Proud to work for the National Health Service (NHS)
Mistakes ⦠Iâve made a few
Top 1 per cent of the population
Disclaimer
Dr Benjamin Daniels is the pseudonym of a doctor currently working for the NHS.
The events described in this book are based on my experiences as a new doctor. For obvious reasons of privacy and confidentiality I have made certain changes, altered identifying features and fictionalized some aspects, but it remains an honest reflection of life as a young doctor in Britain today. This is what itâs like. These things really happen!
Who am I?
Humans have a universal desire to be listened to and share their stories of pain and suffering. My job as a doctor is to listen to those stories. Sometimes I interject with some suggestions or medications, but more often I am simply a passive observer of the soap operas that are peopleâs lives. With regular appointments, I watch the characters develop and the narratives unfold. Although some of my patients have an over inflated view of my significance, I really am just a walk-on part in their lives. Iâm like an extra in a soap opera who tries his best to play a small role in one or two of the storylines, but in reality rarely affects the progress of the plot or the big ending. The advantage I do have is that I get to watch the story unfold from a unique and fascinating angle. Being a doctor gives me a privileged insight into the more private and often bizarre aspects of human life and, with that in mind, let me share some slices of my working life with you.
I love my job and have no regrets about choosing to become a doctor and then specialize as a primary care physician. This is quite fortunate really, as my decision to study medicine was made as I chose my school exam subjects at the tender age of 16¼. At this time my only real reservation against becoming a doctor was the knowledge that I would have to endure studying chemistry. I couldnât really think of any other reason why I shouldnât be a doctor. What could be better than swanning around a hospital full of beautiful nurses and âsaving livesâ? People would think I was great and ultimately this would lead to me finally getting a girlfriend. As an awkward 16-year-old with bad skin and greasy hair, most of my career aspirations were based on what profession would give me the best opportunity of gaining me some interest from the opposite sex. I had accepted that my carnal ambitions would ideally be achieved by being in a boy band or playing Premiership football, but unfortunately my lack of talent in both these departments led to the inevitable choice of medicine. I chose a career in medicine in the year that ER first arrived on our screens. A poster of George Clooney in a white coat was on every girlâs wall. Of course I wanted to be a doctor!
On my university application form, I had the good sense to not write that I wanted to be a doctor so I could âsave lives and hence get laidâ. I scribbled down something about my love of âworking as part of a teamâ and my âfascination with human sciencesâ. To be fair, I suppose these statements were also true, but it is so hard to pick a career aged 16. The real world of work is always such a mystery until you enter it. When my mate Tom applied to teacher-training college, he wrote that he wanted to âhelp young people flourish and fulfill their true potentialâ. After a five-year tour of duty in an inner city school, like us medics, he is just trying to get to the weekend without being punched or sued.
Although I now work as a family physician, my training required me to spend many long years working as a hospital doctor. I completed five years at medical school and then spent several years working in various hospital posts gaining the experience needed to become a family physician or as we call ourselves in the UK, a General Practitioner (GP). I was a resident doctor in surgery, psychiatry, ER, pediatrics, gynaecology, geriatrics and general medicine. I also broke up my training with a three-month stint working in Mozambique. All in all I loved working as a hospital doctor but have absolutely no regrets about leaving it to work in the community.
