I hate doctors who think their time is more valuable than mine

I had an unpleasant run-in with one of my doctor's partners tonight that just reinforces my opinion about many doctors.

The situation was this: I had called in refills to my pharmacy for a couple of prescriptions yesterday, with the intention of picking them up today. I got going on a few things, and tuned in the Cowboy game/disaster, and basically I just forgot about it until around 5:15. My pharmacy closed at 4:00 today.

This was dumb on my part. No question about it. Especially since I'm back on the plane tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. to Seattle.

So, I called my doctor's answering service, explained the situation to them and they paged the doctor for me.

My doc is not on call this weekend, but one of his partners was. The partner called me. I explained the situation, and asked for the first major favor I've requested from that practice in the 10 years I've been a patient there. Could he please call the 24-hour pharmacy and request a few pills to get me through the week (which is Christmas week, btw)?

Not only did he refuse to do it, but he was a real dick about it. "We don't handle prescriptions on weekends, especially due to poor planning on your part," he tells me.

What an effing jerk!!

I don't disagree that it was poor planning on my part. I made a mistake by not picking up the prescriptions.

What I've got a problem with is his crap attitude. I was asking for a favor. It would require minimal effort on his part. Call the damn pharmacy (I'll give you the number, buddy) and request a few pills (I'll tell you what I need, as well). That's it. He doesn't need to get off the couch.

Is he willing to do me a favor? Hell no. Is he willing to at least be nice about it? Not at all.

Dude, please help me out here. What is it that you're supposed to be doing, again? Helping me stay healthy? How does being a colossal jerk-weed about this help me in any way? Does it teach me a lesson? Hell no. I know better than to do this. I made a mistake. It happens. Can you help me fix it? Or would you rather score some cheap points off me? The latter? OK. As long as I know what to expect.

We know a lot of doctors (my wife is in the medical field), and the vast majority of them are not like this at all. However, I maintain that there are more a-hole doctors than any other profession, per capita. Probably lawyers are up there too, but I haven't had to deal w/ many lawyers, so I wouldn't know about that.

The impression that I got from the ON-CALL doctor (as in, he's going to get calls from his and his partners' patients) was that I shouldn't have been bothering him with my silly little "health-related issue". On the weekend, I need to call 911. If it's not serious enough for that, then it's not serious enough for him. Not when his time is SOO valuable. Certainly its more valuable than mine. Isn't it?

What a silly little peasant I am.

There, now I feel better.