Doctors BBC One

[CecilyParsley]

Hi did anyone see Doctors yesterday? I did and I am fuming. The scenario was that a nurse set up a coffee morning for chronically sick patients, the inference being that many were isolated, lonely etc. I thought great initiative but then the Doctors started discussing said patients. Comments about how can you stand it to be stuck in a room with them? Comments about they will all just want to drone on about their health for hours. Lots of eye rolling and face pulling. The patients in the group had Lupus, RA and MS. I know it is just a drama but it made me so angry to depict people who suffer so much in such a derogatory manner.

[Hidden]

How appalling that sounds. I’d be really upset too. Maybe you could write to their feedback and express this point of view? X

[CecilyParsley in reply to Hidden]

Yes I intend to. I love Casualty and have watched it for years but I gave them a piece of my mind when they tackled Lupus badly years ago. I am pleased to say the last time they had a Lupus storyline it was handled tactfully.

[Willow1414]

Hi Cecily parsley

Wonder where they did the research for the program . Just goes to show no respect from the bbc . Maybe they would like to put out a documentary on lupus , to show the real effects it can have on a persons life , and remember that lupus , RA and MS does not hold any boundaries on who it effects and what age .

I think you should write ofcom and request a apology from the bbc for this disrespectful offensiveness , never mind the nurses who I’m sure feel this pro trail of them is seen has highly unprofessional .

[CecilyParsley in reply to Willow1414]

The facial expressions of the doctors portrayed by actors was appalling. The inference being rather you than me being stuck in a room full of moaners who want to talk about how sick they are and bore the pants off you. It really made me so angry. I would hate to think that my GP was saying oh my God it’s her again.

[Spotty-ewe in reply to CecilyParsley]

It just shows their ignorance and appears some Lupus awareness is needed. If you write to them perhaps it would be worth referring them to Lupus UK literature and this forum. Very upsetting when people with our condition are belittled on a medical drama. 😬😫 Thanks for sharing this with us. 🤗

[Hidden]

Wow!! Is that even PC these days?

[CecilyParsley]

Maybe so Jacky but two wrongs do not make a right. Broadcasters have a duty to consider such issues when making programmes. Sadly they catered to the perception that we are all time wasting miserable people who enjoy a good moan and should be avoided at all costs.

[Hidden]

You know, Storm (and Spotty) just reminded me of how truly fabulous and strong so many of you are. So many of us are. So this doctor show can take their script and shove it down the sewer drain, because it’s garbage! If they want to know what ‘boring Lupies’ are like, they should come in here. They could see people like Stiff and Storm and Barnclown (as well as the rest of you) who go through so much, yet are so strong and positive. People like Spotty who has her own health problems but comes here to keep an eye on her friends and lifts us up with her love and kindness. THAT would be the real story line! About Lupus Warriors. And so many of you in here that are young, and just starting your lives who feel like your future has been ripped out from under you and are going through shock before learning coping mechanisms. Young parents going through this with little ones to raise, husbands who are in here to support their wives. Wise one’s like KayH, Doaty and JMiller, who share their knowledge in a non judgemental way while fighting their own battles. Kevin and Paul and all the other administrators who work tirelessly to support and comfort us! I don’t know everyone in here, but everyone has their story, and yet gives a helping hand to the rest. That’s the storyline! We all are humans about the business of living our stories. That’s what the storyline should be.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

PS, Cecily, thank you for bring this forward! 🙏

[CecilyParsley in reply to Hidden]

So beautifully put. You are absolutely right. People here, despite their suffering and the relentlessness of ill health do their very best to comfort, support and brighten the lives of others. Xx

[Gcart]

I didn’t see the program mentioned

but it highlights just how much damaged it can do to different communities.

The media needs to make sure such programs aren’t shown .

I refuse to buy newspapers or watch any such programs any more.

[Gcart]

Discrimination seems only protects certain groups . In my opinion chronic illness should be ‘up’ there . Sensitivity should always be practiced .

[CecilyParsley in reply to Gcart]

I agree completely well said

[Geordie-Y]

No offence meant here Cecily but I think that you should stop watching day time tv if you can get yourself upset by it. What I mean is, it is completely fictional and I don’t believe that doctors are sitting around discussing their patients in any derogatory manner. I think that anyone who has Lupus has had some poor experiences with their GP (I call mine The Grim Reaper) but I think that the reason we have poor experiences is because they can’t understand the full extent of the symptoms and because of the variance in symptoms from person to person.

As I said in opening there is no offence meant.

[Hidden in reply to Geordie-Y]

But if people don’t understand, don’t you think shows like this help promote misunderstanding?

[CecilyParsley in reply to Geordie-Y]

No offence taken but sadly I disagree completely. My last Rheumatologist told me I had hysteria and Fibro. He sneered in my face and told me if I got ill I would prove him wrong. That is not fiction, that is not drama, that is real life. So many of us, me included feel a burden on our loved ones, on our medical professionals and the fact that a daytime, popular soap portrayed chronically ill patients in this manner is not ever acceptable and I make no apology for watching daytime tv or for getting annoyed by it.

[Geordie-Y in reply to CecilyParsley]

Firstly, I think that you and Brooksidecourt are correct in that the show probably promotes a misunderstanding. You said in your response “we feel like a burden on our loved ones” and that is 100 % right and that is where it would promote any misunderstanding. The reason that I say this is due to the fact that I was asked by a family member not to be part of the family picture at a recent wedding due to the discoid Lupus rash on my face. The realities are that the only people who really know the anguish of any Lupus sufferer is the person who is suffering and we feel it more when family members are ignorant of the pain that we’re constantly in. Comments from family members of the type “he/she is unwell AGAIN” tend to be more of a setback than anything. So, abject apologies to anyone who may have been upset with my reply to yourself.

By the way I told the family member who asked me not to be part of the family photograph ever so politely to f—k off.

[Krazykat26 in reply to Geordie-Y]

😹😹 good for u xx

[CecilyParsley in reply to Geordie-Y]

Wow how dreadful that a member of your family would even consider omitting you from a photo. It must have felt so upsetting. I had a best friend who I considered as family given I have none except my hubby, drop me as maid of honour and omit me from wedding photos because I had put on lots of weight with the steroids and Garbapentin. She is now an ex friend but it hurt like hell. Good for you telling them to go away lol I have vented about Doctors on their Facebook page by the way. They have a duty to provide accurate portrayals even if it is a drama. Xx

[MrsMouseSJ]

This is an interesting one and I don't know how I feel about this.

On the one hand, perhaps this is indeed how some people/medics view patients with chronic conditions, for which there is no 'magic bullet'/handy prescription. And it is a fictional drama.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem that the episode explored, even if very briefly, why those of us in such a position would want to talk - perhaps at length - about our health issues and challenges. Does drama have an obligation to reflect reality? I don't know.

But it might be something that Lupus UK might wish to raise with the BBC - that drama can influence/shape some people's views on things and that 'writing off' patients with chronic conditions as droning whingers, without a modicum of balance, might be something that the BBC wishes to consider for future scripts.

[DaftCat]

I love shows like Father Brown and Shakespeare and Hathaway which follow Doctors in the schedules. I can’t bear to watch one minute of Doctors as it seems so wooden. It’s disheartening to feel that it is portraying those of us with chronic illness as whingers. What a rubbish programme!

[Bake34 in reply to DaftCat]

I agree wholeheartedly, the programme is appalling

[Hidden]

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more. What really stinks to me about this is that this is a BBC1 daytime drama series and we are all expected to pay our licence fee for this public broadcasting service.

So a fair proportion of those who watch it will presumably be people with chronic conditions or the elderly - who maybe homebound and already socially isolated? It seems extra monstrous that the BBC should allow this episode to be made and broadcast - given their remit and given that we are paying for this service out of our licence fees and taxes?

I would write to complain and make this point myself but don’t want to have to find it and watch it! Xx

[CecilyParsley in reply to Hidden]

Don’t worry I will do it for all of us. It is not good enough. It made me so angry probably because of my recent experience with a Rheumy who felt my macular cysts were hysteria because he had doubled my Hydroxychloroquine. I will let you know if I get a response xx

[CecilyParsley]

I agree Doctor’s is an odd one because it veers between truly dreadful and really good. Some of the storylines have been so daft I have immediately turned over but others such as death, stroke, MS, mental health have been handled so sensitively that it has touched me. I think with Doctors they use different writers which could account for the diverse standards.

[whatsit]

The program made me so angry the man said his mother had lupus ,the nurse said no one has ever died with Lupus with that look like it’s nothing to bother about ugh

[Hidden in reply to whatsit]

They’re wrong in this. No one ever died of Lupus?? My daughter-in-law’s best friend lost her mom when she was 10-years-old to Lupus. It causes heart failure, Kidney failure, and so many other organ failures. No one dies of it? My brother always says we all die of the same thing; our hearts stop beating. So if they think of it that way, then I guess that Lupus making your organs fail is not the problem, just the failed organ is🤦🏻‍♀️. And I tell you, even though I have not gone through nearly what most of you have, there are times I feel like one of the walking dead. I may be here, I may be breathing... but I just don’t feel alive at all. Psh, these people!

[CecilyParsley]

Oh yes I forgot that bit thank you for reminding me. It did make me so angry. He received sympathy for pretending to have a chronic illness so that he could bed women!! Shocking really

[stiff19]

I didn’t see it and glad I didn’t 😡😡

It’s a disgrace to make light of sufferings fictional or not. And if it upset you yes I’d complain, it sounds like they need educating.there are things in life you can’t make light of, sadly this happens all too often and no one goes to docs to tell them what a great day they’re having 😡

Bless you cecily , you were upset because you have a heart 🙏🤗

[Mozart12 in reply to stiff19]

Don't watch television !!!!

That will sort everything out .....I threw mine in the skip when it went digital lol there are so many lovely things to do an get involved with.. .... And get InTouch with yourself too.......very helpful.....I'm much more peaceful and aware now and have space to think for myself.

Bin it now I say and look forward to peace 😶

[CecilyParsley]

Noooo I do not want to throw my tv out. It keeps me entertained, keeps my mind off my pain, is my window on the world. I love the tv, particularly films. When the exhaustion is bad it is all I can do. I love going outside too, I love nature and enjoy socialising but it is not always possible. I am pleased that it works for you though.

[CecilyParsley]

Omg don’t start me on Gogglebox. I love some and loathe others on that programme. I have made a complaint to theeBBC and written on their Facebook page so my vitriol was released lol