Our readers may be interested in this correspondence we had with Dr Reddel on behalf of one of our readers a couple of days ago.
It’s amazing how you can send an email to doctors like Stephen Reddel which could be answered with a one word answer – “Yes” or “No” – and you get back a reply, partly unintelligible, but along the lines of, “Oh dear, Richard! you should really know this, but, unfortunately there are all sorts of clear professional and medico-legal reasons why we can’t answer your questions.” It’s as though they want to make you feel like you’ve been a naughty school child.
When there are others you can send the same email to and get back replies like this, (as we have today,):-
AND then it turns out that what the correspondence from the Stephen Reddels of this world is really about is not “clear professional and medico-legal reasons” at all, but about trying to get you to pay $440, (or $320 for pensioners,) for a consultation in which answers to your questions will be given.
But what you’ve emailed the doctor for was to find out whether “helping people with these symptoms” is “within your areas of expertise” or not? And the danger with some doctors is that, once they’ve got you there, they’ll carry on as though helping people with your symptoms IS within their areas of expertise, irrespective of whether it is or not.