Are patients the enemy?

There's a good blog in the BMJ this week about the impact that being a busy GP has on you.
Here's a quote from it - written by someone about his friend who is now burning out.

http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2010/10/14/julian-sheather-when-patients-become-the-enemy/

"No doubt there are many reasons why people go into medicine, but one of my friend’s was that old old impulse to help people out. So exhausted had he become though, so drained by the demand, that he had come very nearly to dread the next person coming through the door. It is a terrible thing when good doctors start to see patients not as people to be helped but almost – and it is difficult to find a better word - as an enemy to their own wellbeing."


I remember this from the long hourse of being a house officer when I remember someone admitting they were so knackered they wished their admission had died before they made it into casualty. Medicine can be very dehumanising but I wonder if we bring it on ourselves and if we should try to say no, I've had enough more. Like other people. No self preservation is no good at all.