Rose,

Your experience is not new. My first neurologist saw me for all of 11 - 13 minutes for the year that I saw him. This was even for me very first consulation, when he looked at me and handmed me a photo-copied website and brochure on dystonia, which he was convinced I had.

My current neurologist and my primary care doctor are totally different. After the doctor-patient business, we talk personal stuff and it really makes a big difference in how I feel after the visit. My neuro is also a pianist, and we have a good conversation about music, which always makes me feel great.

In the old days the doctors could treat each patient as a person, but in the current way of doing things, it seems that the doctors that belong to medical businesses, like my first neuro, end up treating the patient like another product being shipped from a warehouse. To the clinic, the patient is no longer a human being, the person becomes a source of revenue, therefore, the doctors are under obligation to see as many patients as they can in any given day. In some ways I feel that the doctors would like things the way they used to be, but the medical organizations and the HMOs have the control over the situation.

John