THE LEBANESE PHYSICIAN: A PUBLIC'S VIEWPOINT

摘要

A physician's lack of humanity is a general complaint in public surveys. The physician-patient relationship is viewed by the public as being reduced to a business relationship where the patient feels that she is merely a 'client' and the physician a healthcare practitioner' instead of a tare giver', This publicperception is not a phenomenon that is peculiar to Lebanon. Yet, theproblem has been increasing over the years to the extent that patients feelthat physicians are becoming inhumane and business oriented. While thismight not characterize all physicians of the 21st century, this might be trueof at least some. Responses were collected from a study that was undertaken based on aquestionnaire distributed to a pool of 650 participants from different geo-graphical areas and different social and educational backgrounds inLebanon. Participants were all older than18 years and mentally competent.None were physicians. The questionnaire was open-ended and initiallypiloted among a random sample. The physician traits most desired by the public were found to be: moraltraits (41%), interpersonal traits (36%), scientific traits (19%) and other(4%). The most unwanted traitslbehaviours were a lack of interpersonaltraits (57%), a lack of moral traits (40%) and a lack of scientific skills (3%). The physician-patient relationship was perceived, in general, as beinga flawed one. What can be done to remedy the image of the Lebanesephysician that has been projected in the minds of the patients and the publicat large? Nine major recommendations are presented.