I am a stay-at-home gran, married to a retired GP. We're in our late 60s and early 70s respectively. My DH belongs to a website for doctors. I won't name them but I am told they are well-known and the largest discussion forum for doctors in the UK, with over 200,000 members, all GMC-registered doctors. He has been a member since this website was first launched in the late 90s. He used to contribute regularly but stopped not very long ago. When I asked why, he said the site was full of narcissistic bullies and really rude people and a person cannot say anything at all without getting jumped on and abused. I was surprised as I'd never read the forums until now and have always had an extremely high opinion of doctors. My own GP, a lovely guy from the Indian subcontinent, is the kindest and gentlest person you could hope to meet. And I have had good experiences with most doctors, although of course I tend to meet most of them socially, when I suppose they'd be on their best behaviour.
But after DH said this, I asked if I could read while he was logged on. He allowed me to read several threads, warning me that they were not pretty. Unfortunately he was right. I was extremely shocked at how these doctors talk to one another - without any respect or courtesy. After seeing how rude and obnoxious so many of them are (including the women), I am not at all surprised that he's stopped posting or even reading the site. He misses talking to other people though and has joined Gransnet instead! People are so much nicer here, and he says it is because they are mostly non-medical. He says many of his friends and colleagues, including the younger ones, have left the doctors forum for good, because of this nastiness from their peers.
But it's got me wondering. Are all doctors this rude to each other, or is it just a British thing? Most of the unpleasant people I saw on this website tended to be White British. The foreigners seem for the most part polite and even diffident. Hubby and I are WASPS ourselves, so it was rather shocking to see fellow-WASPS behave so badly. Does working in a stressful profession like medicine do this to you, or is it just that British doctors are more vicious online than doctors from other nationalities? In comparison to this doctors website, people on most other forums including Gransnet are sooo polite and courteous, even when people post silly things. I rather like that and understand why hubby wishes to move here. DH says many of the nicer doctors have taken to hanging out on Gransnet and recommend it highly. Doesn't say much for the medical profession though, does it, if they have driven away their own colleagues by being thoroughly disagreeable.
