Matt Berryman’s Lifestream

When all else fails, blame the family doctor

posted by Dr John Crippen at 6:28 PM

"They weigh 80 stone, claim thousands in benefits - and can't work. Who do they blame? Anyone but themselves.

It's a fantasy all right, but we're to blame. We're the ones funding £22 grand a year to house, feed, and clothe the Chawners of Blackburn (pic above). And to keep them in all the saturated fats, sugar, and Gaviscon they will ever need. Why should they work?

Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler draws my attention to the Chawner family of Blackburn.

'Some days I barely eat at all,' declares Emma Chawner, daughter of the house and, at 17 stone, its lightest occupant. 'I don't have breakfast most days. Sometimes I don't have lunch either, and might only have a salad roll for tea. I'm always eating lettuce and apples and stuff.' (Dr Crippen has a simple technique to deal with people like Emma)

Too fat to work

Of course, the media (and the Chawners) want to blame their family doctor.

Work and benefits aside, there is clearly an issue here about the burden placed on the health system by families like the Chawners. Has their GP ever suggested that they lose weight, for their health's sake?

'Not really. What would be the point?' says Philip. 'It's not our fault that we are this size. OK, so they have sent me to a dietician, but what can they do? It's all in the genes.'

Emma agrees. 'It's the way we are. Some people are born thin, some fat. We've tried everything but nothing works.'

May I just confirm that, in a way, it is my fault. For, if you come to see me, I will not comment on your size, your weight, your appearance, your smoking, your drinking or any other part of your life over which you exercise choice, unless it is essential and relevant to the problem you bring to me. If you are obese, you can come to see me about your warts, your breast cancer, your holiday immunisations, your recent bereavement, whatever it may be, secure in the knowledge that I will not start making gratuitous suggestions about diets. On the other hand, come to see me about your arthritic knees, your high blood pressure, your poor exercise tolerance and so on and I will, gently and politely, talk to you about your weight and offer you help and support to deal with it. If that is what you want.

The government does not realise that an ever larger number of people are now frightened to go the doctor as they worry he will start criticising their life style. Now the government is setting up a health police force for forty year olds. As my colleague, the Jobbing Doctor, has pointed out, this is a complete waste of taxpayer's money. As always, Sebastian and Samantha and all the other neurotic middle-class worried-well will pile in to take advantage of their "right" to an unnecessary health check. Our surgeries will be clogged with more unnecessary, unproductive work. The targets will be hit, the bonuses paid, and the taxpayer squeezed whilst the patients with real illness struggle even harder to get an appointment.

I could not agree more with this post. GPs are caught in a difficult position of not wanting to scare people off from visiting them without running the risk of being accused of negligence.