A London Doctor's lament

1/1/2012

At a dinner party on New Year’s Eve I sat next to a GP from Clapham, south London, who told me that his area has had a radical demographic change and most of his patients are white and middle class, the women thin as X-Rays.
He has no trouble with them except that when they consult him they have usually studied the internet first and want to give him their diagnosis, and he said, “they have real trouble with accepting serious illness.”
They just can’t believe it has happened to them. I can sympathise with that. When I heard I had cancer I couldn’t believe it, sometimes I still can’t. Then I remember my mother reminding me that cancer is, “No respecter of persons.”