Phone Consultations

Lately I have been getting a lot of phone consultations. You know the ones that start like

Patient : Hello Doctor, do you remember me, I saw you last week.
Doctor : Oh mmm...yes (hmm which one of the 160 patients is this...)
Patient : Well the medicine you gave me is not working...
Doctor : Oh...(what meds did I give?)
Patient : So I went to the pharmacy and they gave me better medicine...
Doctor : mm, ok good..err I am in the middle of seeing another patient now...
Patient : And the pharmacists did a blood test, you know the 60 tests...and I want to ask you about the results...
Doctor : Errm..maybe you can drop by...
Patient : Well since I am talking to you know, I might as well read out each result....and after that I want to ask about my niece who has a rash...
Doctor : ...zzzzt...static...zzzzz..connection...breaking up....
Patient : My ESR has as asterix..
Doctor : Toot toot toot...disconnected tone.

Well maybe not exactly like that. I do try to entertain phone consults but you have to realise that the doctor has many patients and cannot remember them all, much less the medicines he has prescribed. Also without a proper examination, any advice given over the phone is not proper or accurate.