First, her favorite doctor in Providence, R.I. retired. Then her other doctor, at a health center a few miles away, left the practice. Now, Piedad Fred has developed a new chronic condition: distrust in the American medical system.

"I don’t know,‘’ she said, eyes filling up. "To go to a doctor that doesn’t know who you are? That doesn’t know what allergies you have, the medicines that make you feel bad? It’s difficult…I know that I feel cheated, sad, and like I have my hands tied.‘’

At 71, she has never been vaccinated against COVID-19. She no longer gets an annual flu shot. And she hasn’t even considered whether to be vaccinated against the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, even though her age and asthma put her at higher risk of severe infection.

"It’s not that I don’t believe in vaccines,‘’ Fred, a Colombian immigrant, said in Spanish, at her home one morning last fall. "It’s just that I don’t have faith in doctors.‘’

The loss of a trusted doctor is never easy. But it’s an experience that is increasingly common.

The stress of the pandemic drove a lot of health care workers to retire or quit. Now, a nationwide shortage of doctors and other professionals who provide primary care is making it hard to find replacements. And as patients are shuffled from one provider to the next, it’s eroding their trust in the health system.

  • numberfour002@lemmy.world
    12·
    7 months ago

    If any US-based folks know the secrets for finding a good medical provider that can be trusted, I’d be interested in hearing them.

    I moved to a new area quite some time ago, and to this day, most of the local / semi-local practices are not accepting new patients from the general public. I ended up finding a clinic that would accept me, though it’s the type of place where nurses handle all the patient care instead of doctors. That’s not necessarily wrong or bad, but my experience and opinion of it is mixed.

    That aside, I don’t have a lot of trust in the primary care system for several reasons.

    Privacy is a big issue for me. I’m constantly running into issues like front desk staff asking me sensitive information while other patients are around, and I’m not really comfortable broadcasting things like what medications I’m taking, what the reason for my visit is, or what my sexual orientation is. Can’t we discuss that some place other than in a waiting room full of other patients?

    The other trust issue I have is that far too many of my health complaints essentially get ignored. It seems like if an obvious cause doesn’t show up in simple blood work, then things don’t get taken seriously. It definitely erodes my trust. And, because I’m overweight (25 - 27 BMI, never more), very frequently health complaints get blamed on that.

    I’ve also had issues with providers not really properly explaining things to me or just assuming I should know things. For example, the necessity of fasting before some types of blood tests. I guess they just assume that everyone knows which tests require fasting and which don’t? I learned I had to ask after an incident where ended up having to go to 3 different appointments because they didn’t tell me I needed to fast initially, so they couldn’t do the test on the first appointment. Second appointment, I fasted 24 hours ahead of time and when they found out they turned me away because that was too long of a fast (they never told me I should only fast overnight). The worst part was that I still had to pay the co-pay on those wasted visits.

    Well, my list could go on. I’m really only yelling at the clouds now anyway.