All-knowing General Practitioner

One of my neighbors approached me for treatment. I found that she had a uterine leiomyoma and pelvic endometriosis. She was infertile, but the main reason for that her husband had azoospermia that was not correctable. After discussing all treatment options with her, we settled for an abdominal hysterectomy. It was carried out uneventfully; she made a good recovery, and went home. Unfortunately all was not well. She probably was unhappy at having lost the prospect of a pregnancy even if she knew her husband had a problem that was not treatable. A year later she rang me up. "Doctor, I am Mrs. *****," she said, "I am unwell". I have masked the name to maintain her privacy. "What is the problem?" I asked her. I should have asked her to see me in the hospital, instead of talking to her on phone when I was home, since my hospital practice does not include treating them from my home. I did that because she was a neighbor, and also because she wanted help. "I have lost a lot of weight after my surgery and I feel very weak". I was surprised. If at all, my patients put on weight after surgery because they would not exercise. This seemed to be unusual. "I don't think the operation has caused this", I said. "But it is! Dr Mrs. XXXXX said I should have been given calcium after my hysterectomy. Because I wasn't, I have become weak." "But Dr Mrs. XXXXX is not a specialist of diseases of women", I said. She was a general practitioner near my house. "She does not know these things. I have not removed your ovaries. So your female sex hormone production is still normal, and you don't need hormones or even calcium". “But she is a specialist of women," she insisted. "What is her qualification?" I asked. "That I don't understand, but she is a specialist of diseases of women. She said so." I wanted to get angry and tell her to go get treated by that doctor. But I could not get angry. The fault was not of the patient. It was that of the doctor who was maligning a specialist just to impress her patient and increase her own practice. "I still don't think what you are saying is true," I said. But if you will come and see me in the hospital, I will find out what is the problem and treat it". She never saw me in the hospital. Perhaps I should have told her about other patients that had been misled by this doctor, such as the young woman she had referred to a gynecologist in private practice for excision of transverse vaginal septum. This woman was a mother of a child that she had delivered normally, and could not have a transverse vaginal septum. The said doctor had not even examined this patient internally. The patient did not afford to spend money on treatment in a private hospital, and came to us. All she had was discharge sticking the labia together, kept there because of poor hygiene. When my resident used a speculum, it went away. No more septum! The patient understood this, and also understood why the doctor had sent her to the consultant for an operation.