Now, my GP is a saint. Really, he is the kindest and one of the best men I know, with six adult children all practicing their faith, a loving wife, and the daily rosary in his house.
He is a real pater familias.
However, he is not the usual. What I discovered today was an entire industry, yes, industry, not focused on service, but on money.
The lack of care, empathy, sensitivity to the poor, and general arrogance among the doctors, nurses and staff in two offices, including the superiority of attitude which they exhibited to old and young alike, astounded me.
Although American doctors have the latest equipment, what is lacking is the human touch. I have been to doctors in England, Ireland and Malta, all of whom, bar one, were human beings who had the heart of servants, and were generally interested in who I was-a person in need of some type of attention.
To be in a waiting room where I had to endure "Ellen" and women in horrid pornographic costumes on the television, where the magazines pushed extravagance and luxury, and where the general public responded like sheep being led to the slaughter, rather than questioning and aware people, demonstrated the fall of the American medical system in a few short years.
I can praise so many excellent hospitals and clinics, including some in Missouri. I can also fault the lack of care and the obvious business-like the ambiance of carelessness in some California clinics I had to visit years ago.
But, what I saw today was a complete lack of professionalism of the type shown for years by good doctors and nurses.
I ask questions, if I am going to have surgery. Why not? It was obvious to me that questions were not welcomed. I was shut down twice.
A general secularism has destroyed something beautiful here. It may be lost forever. Where money is god, people become ciphers, not human beings with needs.
When I asked if there were samples of the meds I needed as I could not afford to get them, I was told by the nurse, "We do not do that here, (pass out samples)." And the doctor said, "I do not know what you are going to do as the pharmaceutical companies only care about money." Hmmmm...The office had no advice about charities or programs for those who needed aid. I was treated as if I was an anomaly. Amazing.
I assume most people just go along with the flow, as they have been trained to be treated like bodies without souls. Perhaps so many people have forgotten their souls, they can only relate at the physical level.
That was the great spiritual revelation today. Not one professional I met spoke to my soul. They could only see the body, and not the entire person.
These professionals, young and middle-aged, see only the temporary, the immediate, and not the eternal goal of us all.
These men and women cannot adjust their sight to the real world of the spiritual. They have separated humans from their real form the soul, and re-defined them into mere organic machines.
Some commentators have been saying that Washington wants to destroy Medicare and Medicare supplements, putting all those people on Medicaid. This could be true. Then, no one will have any choices at all, and many people are chaffing that so many doctors are no longer accepting Medicare.
The American public is being held hostage by the medical systems, by Obamacare, by the general sins of vanity and pride. Where Mammon is god, there is no peace. We have become the ultimate utilitarian society.
I grieve at the passing of what was most likely the best medical system in the world. The system has been sold to the god of money. Sadly, he will take his dues in the end.