Dear Madhu
You are sooo right! I panicked big-style when the panel doctor's receptionist told me that they had "Never heard" of an applicant getting packed off to a geriatrician.
I now suspect that the Panel Doctors don't get any feedback at all. The letter telling us to arrange for Mum to see a geriatrician was sent to us, not to the Panel Dctor, and we were told to contact Mum's own GP to get it organised for us. So we did that. Trotted along expectantly, so we did!
Next plantshell - apparently geriatricians are not like cardiologists, very few of them have private practices, it is practically impossible to see one this side of Doomsday unless the patient actually needs them and so on and so forth!
Anyhow, the GP said that the alternative of the "specialist physician" would do instead. He found one who is a Professor of General Medicine, who sounds as if he is semi-retired but seems to be attached to the Geriatric Medicine section of a private hospital, according to the hospital's website, so he clearly fits the bill and has seen Mum.
He was also careful to stress that it is useless to ask him what the outcome will be, because the decision is not up to him. I did know that, objectively, from the outset, but I'm also learning what "clutching at straws" really is too!! In a way, I think it is better if the panel doctors refuse to be drawn into making predictions, because one truets and believes them and then gets hit by a metaphorical truck if DIMIA then ask for a specialist's report! That is what has kept three of your colleagues out of the grave and me out of the jail!
Thanks
Gill
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