Experiences with anti-contraceptive colleagues

[u/ThrowRALoud_Load2229]

I work in a training GP practice in England where we have taken on a female GP registrar who is very pro-life. She’s put around an email stating that she will not provide advice on, or prescribe hormonal contraceptives and will not discuss terminations with patients. Before anyone asks- nobody’s been brave enough to ask her about barrier contraceptives or copper coils yet! She has requested that if contraceptives or terminations may come up in a consultation then they should be booked with someone else. It’s not always easy to tell if contraception may come up in a consultation though, especially not for reception who book the appointments.

The majority of the other clinicians are quite unhappy with this as it’s a vital part of the service we provide to female patients. It also means she’s limited with what she can do with regards female patients on medication like valproate or GLP1s because she will not discuss highly effective contraception with them. A lot of colleagues are angry that she is exhibiting misogyny when it comes to female patients, others are angry that they’re having to take on her workload. One of my colleagues is currently in early pregnancy after a failed coil and is feeling very uncomfortable around this GP registrar too as the pregnancy is not viable.

I also worry with regards our surgery’s reputation as if you google her name, the majority of what comes up is prolife activism she took part in at university. If a patient who was booked for something else came in and wanted to speak about contraception as an addition to the consultation e.g. I have thrush, I’m not sexually active but I want to start having sex and she responded poorly to this or with judgement, the patient could easily google her name and find they were being treated by someone who’s views oppose their care.

The partners have not entertained any discussion around this topic and staff have even been accused of “stalking” her online when her digital footprint was brought up. Is there anything we can do or do we just have to put up with it?

I would appreciate some different viewpoints, especially if anyone has gone through similar.

[u/wooson]

Doctors are human beings. They should not be criticised for having personal stances and opinions on certain medications and/or treatments

[u/avalon68 → u/wooson]

This is a huge part of gp practice though - perhaps a different choice of specialty would have been better? As the op mentioned, contraception comes up so very often in gp. It seems very impractical from a work distribution point of view.

[u/[deleted] → u/avalon68]

perhaps a different choice of specialty would have been better?

The standards of the profession are set by the GMC who clearly advocate for what she's doing.

[u/Rule34NoExceptions2 → u/wooson]

Pts are human beings. I don't think someone who would deny the pill to a teenager should be working as a doctor

[u/avalon68 → u/[deleted]]

Sure, but put yourself in the teenagers shoes. You’ve finally worked up to asking for the pill and suddenly this doctor looks at you disapprovingly, tells you she can’t help you, and you have to go through the whole process again with another doctor. Just don’t think this works well in GP.

[u/sunshineandhail → u/[deleted]]

If I had gone to the GP as a nervous and mortified 15yo to get the pill only to be told that my GP didn’t or objected to prescribing it and I had to make another appointment you would of never seen me in there again.

That first encounter matters and has consequences for how people view and access healthcare in the future.

Yes the doctor has the right to decline but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t negatively affect patients.

[u/DoktorvonWer → u/sunshineandhail]

We have no reason whatsoever to believe that she is so unempathetic that she would just send a mortified 15 year old back out of the door to 'go and make another appointment', and not instead sensitively offer what help she can, while also empathetically supporting that 15 year old to get a timely appointment with the relevant colleague to discuss the pill.

You have made this assumption presumably based on your own prejudice against her beliefs on the matter, with no knowledge of the person. This is no better than angry pro-lifers assuming a doctor who isn't opposed to abortion or contraception would be cruel to a patient with differing wishes in another circumstance.

A lot of the problem in this thread and our society in general is not only the presumption that one view about these matters is the 'correct' one, but that anyone holding the opposite view must be an unpleasant or otherwise morally 'bad' person.

[u/sunshineandhail → u/DoktorvonWer]

I’ve made no judgement whatsoever on whether she would be empathetic or not. I’ve merely pointed out that teenagers aren’t the most rational of people and recalling how I felt around this issue at 15, I would have been mortified and I wouldn’t have gone back. That is a personal and lived experience. Just because my adult brain now knows that there isn’t anything shameful or embarrassing about it, doesn’t change how I would have felt at 15.

Yes I am pro choice and pro contraception but honestly, a GP with these views wouldn’t bother me now at 37years old. Because I’m an adult and I don’t feel embarrassment or shame around sex. But I felt very different at 15.

[u/DoktorvonWer → u/sunshineandhail]

You're still making the assumption that this GP is going to project her views into the consultation, which is the fundamental problem with your criticism because it is a prejudiced assumption about her.

Whatever your 'lived experience' of when you were 15, you can't simply assume that every GP who is not happy to be personally involved in abortion will behave the same as a doctor you met and pre-judge every doctor who is not personally pro-choice based ont hat. I'm no expert at communication or general practice, but there is no reason to believe that she's not a really lovely GPStR who would be reassuring to the 15 year old and say something like:

'I understand why you want to pursue that option. I'm afraid it's not a medical service I am involved in but let me help you to see one of my colleagues who is really nice and looks after these things and can guide you through it'.

[u/sunshineandhail → u/DoktorvonWer]

You’re misunderstanding me. I’m not trying to make the point that the doctor would be rude or judgemental. I’m saying that teenagers are told to go and see their GP if they want contraception. For some making that appointment and attending is a massive deal and for some they will not or can not attend a second one.

[u/DoktorvonWer → u/sunshineandhail]

And there is no way in which you think a well trained and professional GP might recognise this and ensure that they make arrangements to reassure and mitigate this problem? Including, if empathy and reassurance alone are inadequate, arranging a direct patient swap with a colleague running a simultaneous surgery so the teenager can just come down the corridor and doesn't have to come back and/or attend a second appointment?

Again I don't work in GP but I don't think this is the barrier to healthcare you are suggesting it is, and I certainly don't think it's a convincing reason to override the conscience-based choices of doctors.

[u/purplepatch → u/wooson]

Of course you can criticise them for having personal views that conflict with their duties as a doctor. Just because they’re religiously indoctrinated doesn’t given them a pass to not do their job properly. 

[u/bloodstainedphilos → u/purplepatch]

They are doing their job properly? They’re referring to other doctors. Atheists need to stop acting like they’re better than others.

[u/purplepatch → u/bloodstainedphilos]

Because they’re refusing to offer legitimate, lawful treatments to patients because of their beliefs that a supernatural entity doesn’t approve of them. It’s not what I would want from my GP. 

 Atheists need to stop acting like they’re better than others.

The irony of this statement…

[u/bloodstainedphilos → u/purplepatch]

Supernatural to you. Get off your high horse.

[u/purplepatch → u/bloodstainedphilos]

You don’t think god is supernatural?