Listen to the doctor

Some time ago I went to my

GP with an ailment. He asked me what I was doing about it. I replied that I had come to see him about it, whereupon he said: ‘‘Why do you think it is my problem? Have you never heard of autonomy in health. Your health is your problem. What are you doing about it? Do you consider your diet, your exercise? How much effort do you put in to staying healthy?’’

I was not impressed by his bedside manner. But I looked more carefully at what I ate, I went walking every day, I went swimming, cut my alcohol intake and generally made much more effort to improve my health.

I also recognised I was listening to a doctor at the end of his tether listening to patients too lazy to help themselves.

My doctor quit as a GP. In Souldestroying conditions (Nov 21), Dr Tim Malloy describes precisely the exasperation and exhaustion of GP work. Barry Doyle, Karori