The doctor looked younger than the man and he guessed he should be in his early thirties.
He showed the rashes to the doctor and told him he suspected it could be insect bites.
The doctor took a look and prescribed two kinds of antibiotics and one cream to apply.
Throughout the whole process, the man did not ask the doctor what could be the cause apart from his suspicion of insect bites. The doctor also did little to find out if he has been to any places where he might has gotten bitten.
While speaking to his colleague about his condition, his colleague said perhaps he should not say its insect bite and instead let the doctor examine to find out the cause. She felt the doctor might has taken the man's word at face value.
She then wonder if the doctor is in a rush to see as many patients as possible and if he has some kind of target to meet every day, like seeing a certain number of patients a day.
After all, most of us are measured by the amount of output at our work.
But the doctor profession is a bit special in that sometimes it's very difficult to measure the quality of their service. Patients often do not come back to the same doctor if the condition does not improve (unless specifically told by the doctor for follow up). Even if patients do come back, there is often no records where the data can be extracted to show that it's for the same medical problem and analyzed. And coupled with the complexity of each patient's condition, it's quite difficult to track unless they maintain very detailed reports of patients, their medical histories and which doctors they are seeing and have seen.
One of the way to measure if a doctor is good (as in giving accurate diagnosis and medication) could be in the number of patients requesting to see a particular doctor. But that itself is also flawed as one cannot choose which day to falls sick unless one can afford to wait or seeing a specialist.
Why did the man not ask the doctor more questions about his condition?
Is it because the doctor looks young and the man has no confidence in him? We all assume an older doctor is more experienced. This of course could also be wrong.
Is it due to the white coat worn by doctors which we identify as authority and professional that we are confident in their diagnosis? Or that we are afraid to ask questions and be seen as challenging someone of authority? Or the man too afraid he takes up too much of the doctor's time?