When a good reputation makes for a lot more work...

I see lots of patients in the Muslim Charity Hospital, for many different reasons.

Some months ago, I saw a patient who had been diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) by an outside doctor, and the patient was seeing me for a second opinion. I did a bit more of a work up and concluded that the patient did not have TB. (I don't fault the original doctor, TB can be a very tricky thing to diagnose sometimes.)

The patient was very happy, and has been symptom free since seeing me.

But now some people are thinking that I am the doctor who can tell them they don't have to take their TB meds. (TB medications are fameous for their side effects.)

So each week I am seeing another patient or two who comes in and asks if they have have to take their TB meds. But it seems clear to me that they DO have TB and desparately need to finish their six month course of medications.

Takes a lot of work to convince them to keep taking their meds.