Thank you for the comments and suggestions to my last post. I appreciate all of them, truly. There was definitely a wide range of opinions on the the giving of the coffee card.

Thank you for this:

“As a health care worker i feel the need to tell you how inappropriate patients gifts are, we have policies and regulations to follow in relation to gifts from patients and their families and the intention in which the gifts are given. I know many doctors who have accepted gifts from parents of patients, to save the embarrassment of declining, to share the gift with fellow staff members or give to charity.

The perception of corruption and special favors in these circumstances by others, especially as you are publishing details on the web, and i am sure he would be aware of this blog. Are you not considering the added pressure you are placing on this doctor in the face of diplomacy.

You have made many comments about your failed attempts to contact the doctor, are you not aware of the demands placed on these under paid and under staffed professionals. I am very aware you have a sick child but there are many in this world with much bigger problems than yours. YOU must come to realise that in most circumstances it is not about you, but maybe about someone else in  need and he has spread himself as far as humanly possible!!!!!!!! (as most doctors do!!!)

With so many negative comments made by you in the direction of this pediatrician,
1. Why did you bother with the coffee gift in the first place?
2. Why haven’t you packed up your medical files and taken your children to another pediatrician? (I have 3 children and i can tell you that if i had as many complaints as you with a doctor, i certainly wouldn’t hang around to see what mistake they would make next)

Just remember we all have lives!!!!! (doctors do too!!!)”

Wow. Just wow.