Friday, January 18, 2008

“Neither Fish Nor Fowl Nor Good Red Herring”

The latest This oldie-but-still-insane* political correctness fairy tale from the Unhinged Kingdom:

FaerieA family doctor has been summoned to a formal hearing over his refusal to put a 34-year-old male patient on the list for screening for cervical cancer.

The complaint has caused doctors in the west country practice to spend hours in meetings and writing replies to the local primary care trust over the complaint which began two years ago.

The man, who has fathered a child, believes he is a hermaphrodite although his doctors have examined him and can find no evidence for this. However, they did agree to his request to be re-registered with a female name.

One doctor in the practice said: “We are worried that the PCT is so falling over backwards to be patient-friendly, that it has gone too far the other way. Silly things are starting to happen.”

The wife of one of the GPs, told The Telegraph she had every sympathy for people who believe they had the body of the wrong gender but the decision to investigate the refusal was political correctness taken to extremes.

She said her husband, who has been a GP for 30 years and who trains young doctors would be “pleased to hear from anyone, medical or otherwise, who could teach him the correct way to carry out a cervical smear on a 34-year-old male”…

The mind reels whilst conjuring up such an image. But the bureaucracy doesn’t flinch.

*Archonix pointed out the date on this one: 2003. How come it's still so fresh?

Story carries on past the fold...
- - - - - - - - -
She added: “The refusal of one of the doctors to put Mr X on the recall list for cervical screening has resulted in a complaint and, as a result the doctor, practice manager and other practitioners have spent many hours, at the expense of the care of other patients, answering written inquiries.

“My suggestion would be to accede unquestioningly to the patient’s demand and carry out the procedure requested. Provided of course that a representative of the primary care trust could indicate the necessary part of this gentleman’s anatomy, and was able to give the learned medics a clue as to how they could access it.”

The doctors are confident that the man has “a genuinely held belief” about his gender.

As Charlie Brown used to say, “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” This man needs psychiatric services, not gynecology. But he’s still adamant:

He first wanted a cervical examination and was refused because he did not have a cervix. He then asked to be put on the list for regular screening.

He has since requested full DNA testing and full blood toxicology screening, although he will not give his doctor a reason or describe symptoms to justify the tests.

Is it any wonder that the National Health Service in the UK is in trouble? This demand moves beyond ludicrous into some Flaky Space best served by a long rest and cool cloths on the forehead…and, come to think of it, maybe some anti-psychotic meds.


Hat tip: Political Correctness Watch

10 comments:

X said...

Hm, I thought I'd heard this story before. The byline says 2003... :)

Things aren't any better today, it has to be said.

Zenster said...

As a cure for the patient's hermaphroditic misdiagnosis, permit me to suggest a thoroughly refrigerated speculum inserted to its fullest extent in the next nearest orifice.

Dymphna said...

Archonix--oops--my bad: I din't check the date. I'll retitle it as recycled oldie but still insane.

________

Zenster:

I would imagine the docs that had to go thru the wringer for this strange person already had their sinstruments at the ready.

Zonka said...

Zenster... Have you gone soft on your old days :) Use the speculum on the nearest orifice -- the urinal tract. That should cure it for certain, whether refrigirated or not!

Panday said...

Think that's bad? Look what's happening here in the U.S.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323791,00.html

John Rohan said...

LOL, this is one of the best stories I read in a long time. Some cities in the US now let people "self-identify" their gender, whether they've had a sex-change operation or not. I see this same situation happening in the Us at some point.

Sodra Djavul said...

An apt phrase comes to mind, frequently used by myself and my brothers when analyzing my mother's Christmas stocking gifts:

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"

Or, in the common parlance of the day, What The F***?

- Sodra

Frans Groenendijk said...

Reminds one of the great movie "The life of Brian":
"From now on I want you all to call me Loretta", "Why Stan?". "I want to have babies. It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them".

OT: Did everyone check the Ezra Levant clips?
here they are

And while you're at Youtube check the latest of Pat Condell too.

the doctor said...

Why waste any time on this , call in a psychiatric social worker and section the idiot .

1389 said...

Frans,

I have embedded links to all of the Ezra Levant videos, along with other material, here.

I'm trying to encourage every blogger to participate in Michelle Malkin's Mo-Toons Blogburst by posting the Mo-toons on his or her own blog. I have the links to copy the Mo-Toons so that you can upload them to your site. I also have a thumbnail that you can put into your sidebar with a link to your own copy of the Mo-Toons.

If the would-be censors find that there are thousands, or maybe tens of thousands, of blogs that display the Mo-Toons, they'll look awfully foolish trying to punish anybody for having published those Mo-Toons in the past.

We're all in this together!

1389