If you are well, stay away from hospitals

The phenomenon of healthy individuals seeking unwarranted health care is well known. There are several reasons for this kind of behavior. There are also downstream negative effects affecting the individuals concerned, coupled with inevitable consequences on overall healthcare services.

But why would completely healthy individuals seek healthcare services? Some may just be paranoid, looking for the proverbial but non-existent needle in a hay stack. Others may have unused healthcare funds that they may want to exhaust, in a rather objectionable manner. Yet others may have nothing better to do with their time, choosing to waste healthcare resources unnecessarily.

If you deliberately end up at your doctor’s without a good reason, you may be unwittingly brewing trouble for yourself. You’ll have to come up with some sort of credible tale to justify your presence. Your doctor may patiently go over you, possibly coming up with findings that add up to what you just made up. One thing may lead to another, and you may end up with a barrage of tests, prescriptions, or other interventions that are completely worthless. Some interventions may eventually harm you. And all you ever did was visit the doctor on a whim.

The health system suffers too. If you are occupying a doctor’s slot when completely well, you are inevitably denying a more deserving person who may be too unwell. This can contribute to poor outcomes for others who have to wait behind you. There is also a strain on the healthcare system’s efficiency. So much unnecessary stuff gets done, wasting resources linked to healthcare personnel and ancillary services.

Can doctors tell when patients are malingering and wasting everyone else’s time? Often times yes, but other times no. Many doctors are forthright, and will not allow anybody to waste their valuable time. But given the nature of healthcare, many health workers will always give you the benefit of doubt, and try and work out if you are indeed suffering from some elusive condition.

The summative effect of seeking healthcare unnecessarily is the eventual poor productivity for everyone involved. You end up wasting your own time and resources, you could have done something more useful than bothering the doctors unnecessarily. The focus of healthcare workers is blurred, with their attention getting diverted from those sicker and more deserving. Ample healthcare investments and resources end up on the wrong pathway. Everyone takes a hit.

If truly unwell, get yourself to the doctors promptly. If your health screening interval is due, get your tests updated without any undue fuss. But if you have no business with the doctors, better to stay away. You’ll have done yourself, and others, some good.

Dr Alfred Murage is a Consultant Gynecologist and Fertility Specialist. amurage@mygyno.co.ke