It’s fair to say I thought I dealt with the whole idea of having an incredibly rare growth in my guts quite well, but looking back at the 3am Google sessions and the more than occasional bout of tears, I now know I was kidding myself. Thankfully after an endoscopy, surgery and a prescription of follow up scans, all is now well, but this was not before I had run through every worst case scenario in the book. It was during one of these highly emotive states I had to ring the doctor to confirm a time to be at the hospital and I punched his name into Google. After scrolling down I found his details and there, at the side of the notification, was the word “Reviews”. Now I’m well aware we’re in the grips of a brave new world, where the consumer has unprecedented power over a goods or service provider. Instead of buyer beware, it’s more a case of beware the peeved off customer as we now wield the might and power of the internet and its defining stars and ratings systems. But really? Giving a star rating to a gastric surgeon? I can honestly say that had never crossed my mind. Food and restaurants? Yes. Movies and books? Sure. Hotels and accommodation? You bet. But doctors? Of course I clicked on straight away. Thankfully Dr G got five stars on all of the reviews I read — and I say thankfully, because I was already committed to travelling this horrible journey with him, on the back of a recommendation from my GP. I’m not sure how I would have felt if I read one of these internet verdicts that said, “Run. Run while you still can!” I did know however how I felt going through this process, and that was scared and sad, while oscillating between blind optimism and crippling pessimism. Looking back, there is no way in hell I would have been able to give an objective account of anything I was going through. When Dr G finally told me the surgery had gone well he could have been Donald Trump critiquing Mexican immigration and I still would have kissed him and thought he was a cross between Charlie Teo and Mother Teresa. You woke me up from the general anaesthetic? Bang, there’s a star. You reckon I won’t die? Bang, bang. There’s another two. You mean I can eat this jelly and don’t have to share it with my kids? Bang, bang, bang. So I ask you, what exactly is a star worth now we’re trying to dish them out to people who do work the vast majority of us will never understand? While I appreciate bedside manner and promptness are important elements of the doctor/patient relationship, ultimately a surgeon is paid to cut with precision. Hey, if you can do that, stitch me up and send me back to my family then I don’t really care about what an anonymous reviewer thinks, and I certainly can’t be beholden to them for my medical decisions. In terms of rating doctors this is clearly an extreme example, but the broader point is that our interactions with service providers are being influenced and hijacked by anonymous online middle men/women/children/or the business owners themselves. This in turn fuels a level of cynicism and mistrust of this entire internet process, which ironically should return us to the old school value of personal recommendations. So if anyone is after a great stomach doctor, I’m more than happy to tell you all about Dr G — he is awesome — but you also should know he did his best work while I was under a general anaesthetic and I can’t actually remember a thing. Source
