Doctor reveals he resents treating drunk patients

'They fight, vomit and waste precious NHS time'

(iStock/mediaphotos)

A veteran NHS doctor has revealed that members of “the drunken brigade” are the only type of patient that he feels little sympathy for.

Gautam Das, 67, was a senior consultant urology surgeon with the NHS for 26 years before recently retiring, and has performed thousands of procedures on patients.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Dr Das admitted that the “drunken brigade” is the “one thing I can’t abide by.”

“Fighting and vomiting, wasting precious NHS time…Well, I have little sympathy for them. It’s always more important to see someone who’s had a heart attack than some idiot who has a gash in the head because of a drunken brawl.”

Dr Das added that when he arrived to the UK from Kolkata, India, 43 years ago, he was “impressed with the NHS.”

"Free care? To have that worry of payment taken away from you when you’re poorly? It's incredible."

He went on to describe one of the hardest moments of his career, when he lost a young patient to bone cancer.

"It was 47 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. I still hear his dad begging me to do something, but after various treatments, the cancer was too aggressive. He died within two weeks of diagnosis."

The former surgeon is not the only medic to speak openly about what irks him about his patients.

Dr Jennifer Caudle, a family doctor in the US, told The Daily Beast that patients who reel off symptoms when their appointment ends as among the most irritating.

“We spent an entire visit together talking about this, that, and the other and you didn’t mention a word about chest pain. Then you mention it as I am on my way out of the door? Really?!?!?!?”

Dr Caudle explained that while some medical conditions are easy to deal with in a short space of time, “in order to properly and thoroughly treat whatever is going on we need time.

“When you bring up a health issue at the last minute it’s simply not fair to you.”

Patients who believe everything they read about healthcare online are also annoying, she added.

“The Internet is filled with lots of amazing information. Unfortunately, not all of it is true or applicable to your particular situation," she warned.