Should I report my doctor to the authorities?

The mental health of doctors has become a topical subject globally. FILE PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

My doctor was smelling of alcohol and fell asleep during my consultation. I think he needs a doctor because he also looks unkempt. Should I report him to the authorities?

The mental health of doctors has become a topical subject globally, and yours is a timely question. Your doctor needs help, and depending on your relationship with him, it might be possible to suggest this to him without breaching the confidence between a patient and the doctor.

The alternative would be if you can access some of his friends or family so that he can be helped. Doctors are humans too and often require help just like any other person.

A few months ago, at a doctors’ meeting, the question of the mental health of doctors was discussed in light of the perception that there was an increasing number of doctors who needed help.

Media reports had been awash with images of doctors who had come to harm in attempts at suicide while others had died by suicide.

Both doctors and patients are entitled to greater mental health care than is currently available.

Regarding the mental health needs of doctors, the range is very broad. In some cases, all the doctor needs is outpatient care, while in other instances, they might require hospitalisation.

You are concerned about a doctor who smelled of alcohol and fell asleep during a consultation. There are many reasons for this kind of scenario.

If for example, the person in question is young, in his 20s and you consulted on the day following his engagement party, and who has an otherwise impeccable record of diligent hard work, that might be a one-off matter that would require what we call in medicine “watchful waiting.”

The other extreme of a doctor who examines patients while smelling of alcohol and falls off to sleep is captured by the story of a very senior doctor who died in a road accident some years ago, as his colleagues almost literally watched him “kill himself with alcohol”.

For several years, all his colleagues knew that the doctor was the first and the last to leave the club and he was very drunk every day and staggered to his car, often after passing urine on himself.

Patients often complained that he smelt of alcohol, seemed muddled at times, and often gave them what they said was the wrong medication.

He was popular with many organisations who retained him as the company doctor and the patients were afraid of him because of the connections he had with the big bosses.

A conspiracy of silence meant that nobody spoke about the condition of the doctor even though they all knew something was wrong.

After his death, the postmortem report came as a complete surprise to all. He had a slow-growing tumour in his brain which was the real cause of the gradual change in his personality.

In hindsight, his wife and siblings all reported having noted that he had gradually changed and was moody, irritable, and rather forgetful.

He was also a little slow and extremely anxious, a condition that was relieved by alcohol.

It was later considered possible that the accident was because he had an epileptic seizure while driving, a fact supported by the fact that he had had many falls at home and work, even when not drunk.

All around him felt very guilty because they failed to act on time.

These two examples of the doctors are extremes and the reasons for a doctor, smelling of alcohol, and falling off to sleep can be varied and each instance demands a different set of interventions.

What is clear however is that you owe it to both the doctor and his patients to “do something”. Keeping such critical information to yourself is not an option.

Send your mental health concerns to [email protected]