for those who have been refused care by md'S for delaying or not vaccinating....

[justme]

This iskind of a spin-off from the other vaccine thread,but my question seems to be getting lost. Anyway, I've seen several people mention that doctors have refused to have them as patients over vaccine issues. On one hand, it doesn't surprise me, but I am still blown away by the close-mindedness and arrogance of this. I was just wondering what the experience was like- was it a big argument where they told you never to come back, did they politely let you down or what? I wonder about the legality of that as well.I actually thought the AAP came out with a statement that md's should NOT refuse care based on immunization status. Not only that, but what kind arrogant jerk refuses to care for someone just because they dare to question or disagree with them on something? That to me right there says the person is too insecure on their position that they can't even defend it. Definitely not the type of person that I feel should be a doctor!

If anyone would like to weigh in on this with their feelings or experiences, I would be interested to hear it. Also, if you are faced with this, do you just slink away defeated, give them an earful or complain to the medical board or clinic that the doctor works at? What action do most take?

[6packofun]

told us that he felt it would go against the Hippocratic oath to not vaccinate because he feels that vaccinations prevent harm (so NOT vaccinating goes against "do no harm") and that his practice focuses on preventative care (above all else, apparently), so he would not be able to accept patients who were not concerned with preventative care for their children because there is a fundamental ethical difference between us.

Nice.

[tess in the burbs]

his son has autism, so when I didn't want to do the MMR he really pushed his belief that mercury wasn't the cause of his son's problems, yada yada. We had other reasons for not doing the MMR on my (allergy related).

I finally stopped all vaccines until they are older and I am ok with it. So far, that hasn't happened.

After one visit he had really been rude about it I pulled out an Informed Consent form that he could sign and put in the record. He refused. He then had my son go get weighed(they didn't in the beginning) and came back to the room. 10 min later I asked the nurse what else we needed to wait for. she was stumped. the dr had LEFT! didn't tell the nurse, didn't wrap up with us. just left.

so we never went back. I assumed we were dismissed :rolleyes:

our new dr asks everytime and I explain I want to wait a little while longer on some and others we won't do at all. He has been respectful about it.

[Alice]

From the doctor's point of view..I think many doctors are concerned about legal issues when parents refuse vaccines. In this litiginous society there could be implications of not vaccinating a child. For example, a kid gets Hib meningitis and has long term hearing loss. The parents could say that the doctor never specifically mentioned that as a risk of not receiving Hib. The child could grow up and sue for damages (in pediatrics you can sue for up to 18 and sometime 21 years for damages).

I'm not at all saying that's a good viewpoint or a fair one. It's sad that any decisions in medicine are made from fear of being sued. However, I know it is a fear of some docs and they've made it a policy to not accept any patients who choose not to vaccinate. In most places (not all) in this country there are other doctors for the patient to see so it's not like denying healthcare. Personally, I still have ethical problems with refusing to care for someone for this reason.

Please don't jump on me. I don't agree with this policy, just thought I'd mention that for some docs it's not about being arrogant or insecure. In my practice, we have decided to see all patients. We do ask all parents that choose not to vaccinate to sign a waiver each time they come that states what vaccines we are recommending and what vaccines they are declining. I think we do a pretty good job making it clear that we believe strongly in vaccination but that we can respect the other opinion. One funny thing for us was that we were listed on some organization's list of good offices to go to if you refuse vaccines...at that same time we received a certificate from the state Vaccines for Children program praising our high vaccination rate.

[justme]

I thought maybe fear of lawsuits could be behind some of it, but as long as the MD documents that the vaccines were offered and the patient signs a waiver declining, I don't know what the problem could be. I mean, you have to sign a waiver if you DO get the shots saying that you can't sue the MD for any complications (which is scary enough- if they're so sure of their safety), so why isn't it the other way around?

As for the doctor who left the person in the room- that was just childish and unprofessional. I guess you can be glad they're not your doctor, anyway!

[Sue G in PA]

all of a sudden the office "policy" changed and so she "let us go" b/c we didn't vaccinate. We interviewed other dr.s and one was so arrogant and so rude that he bordered on threatening us (calling DSS) if we did NOT vaccinate! How's that?!? He asked us who told us vaccinations were not safe and we just looked at him and said we were educated and informed parents who didn't believe that dr's know EVERYTHING! We told him we had a chiropractor...well, he just lost it and demanded the phone number! Needless to say...we left and didn't look back. Our family care provider now accepts us for who we are and what we believe and has NEVER pushed vaccines. I have "issues" w/ the office staff, but the dr. is great.

[AmyinPA]

I took my 10 day old to the ped, and even though I've vaccinated all my first five without question, I suggested that I not get her vaccinated. He told me in no uncertain terms, that unless she receives her vaccinations on schedule, I need to find a new ped. Guess what I was doing today...calling around to other ped's office.

[justme]

Ooh, those stories about tyrannical doctors threatening patients and/or kicking them out of their practice just makes my blood boil! Talk about a god-complex! I don't think I could contain myself if a doctor ever treated me that way. I guess I feel that you should have a partnership with your doctor- not a dictatorship. Once again, I feel the inability to see or consider other points of view (even on medical issues) is a sure sign or arrogance, narrow-mindedness and in many cases ignorance. I mean, if they want to try and convince you to vaccinate and give their reasons, that's fine, but if the person has their reasons for not wanting to for whatever reason, they need to be respected and the ssubject dropped. Would they kick you out for a disagreement on another medical issue like antibiotics, diet or child-rearing issues or is it just the vaccine issue that they can't tolerate?