This letter was sent to Dr Tan today, 26 Jun 2018. We’ll let you know if there’s a response.
We’ve been working on these things for more than 10 years, and in our experience there are lots of Timothy Tans in this world, (and unfortunately we believe this is likely to be so for many years to come,) and relying on them in any sense is complete and utter madness as it can be a danger to our health.
To us, there’s some sort of answer to this – don’t under any circumstances consider using a doctor who hasn’t got an ordinary email address readily available; and work on the theory that we are ten times as likely, perhaps a hundred times more likely, to have satisfactory experiences using doctors who provide reasonable answers to reasonable emails sent to them, rather than using Timothy Tans.
(In saying this very few GPs, at least in Sydney, have ordinary email addresses, so it’s often the case that we just have to put up with this and do our best.)
In most cases we and our readers have to send our own emails, but sometimes readers may find that there is something already on this blog which will save them some time, as is the case with Dr Tan – it only takes a few seconds to do a search on a particular doctor’s name.
You might note that we believe that if enough people start doing what we’re recommending, doctors who don’t provide reasonable response to reasonable emails sent them will find that they’re not getting any patients, and if this happens we will all find that we are living in a much better world.
For your comments and answers to any questions we may be able to provide, email us at mail@medicalquestionsandanswers.net
