I've never actually seen Doc Martin. I had never heard of it until a few months ago when a friend brought it to my attention. I understand its a British show about a doc in a small town. I'll have to see if they have it on Netflix when i get a chance.Yeah, that's correct. From the few episodes I've seen, it's slightly comparable to House, but more witty and with less emphasis on "shock appeal".
I’m a fan of “Doc Martin”. I really have no idea about whether the show is medically realistic or not, but one of the most interesting aspects is the way the public is shown using the British medical system. In the U.S. you could base a whole series about the crisis middle and low income face in just trying to get and pay for medical care, in Britain access to basic health care is a given, it’s really not even a plot point in the show. Yeah, no one needs to tell me that the British health system is far from perfect, and one of the major points of the show is the difficulty of getting a really good physician to work in a small remote town, but as a person who has struggled to even get health insurance, and lived in the fear of any even moderately serious illness or accident creating a financial catastrophe, it sure looks better than what we have.
I’m a fan of “Doc Martin". I really have no idea about whether the show is medically realistic or not, but one of the most interesting aspects is the way the public is shown using the British medical system. In the U.S. you could base a whole series about the crisis middle and low income face in just trying to get and pay for medical care, in Britain access to basic health care is a given, it’s really not even a plot point in the show. Yeah, no one needs to tell me that the British health system is far from perfect, and one of the major points of the show is the difficulty of getting a really good physician to work in a small remote town, but as a person who has struggled to even get health insurance, and lived in the fear of any even moderately serious illness or accident creating a financial catastrophe, it sure looks better than what we have.Hmmm, I thought Doc Martin was a type of boot. Never heard of the show but my favorite hospital show of all time is St. Elsewhere. It's probably not accurate but they did deal with real life situations and I liked the way the writers treated the patient-doctor relationship. Also learned a lot of medical terminology. As to affordable health care (Obama care, ha!' that epithet backfired on the reps.) it gives a much needed boost to the lower middle class and poor, the 47%ers. Cap't Jack
Hmmm, I thought Doc Martin was a type of boot. Never heard of the show but my favorite hospital show of all time is St. Elsewhere. It's probably not accurate but they did deal with real life situations and I liked the way the writers treated the patient-doctor relationship. Also learned a lot of medical terminology. As to affordable health care (Obama care, ha!' that epithet backfired on the reps.) it gives a much needed boost to the lower middle class and poor, the 47%ers.My favorite hospital show is MASH. Take care, Derek
The only doctor I trust is Dr Who.
I'm a fan of "Doc Martin". .I found the show on Netflix and watched the first episode. Its hard to say from one episode but it seems entertaining. Doc Martin reminds me a bit of a short lived American TV series called Becker. Ted Danson played this down and out physician who set up a GP practice in a poor area of the Bronx. He had an irascible temperament and a hilarious tendency to tell patients exactly what he thought which I was always a bit envious of.
I found the show on Netflix and watched the first episode. Its hard to say from one episode but it seems entertaining. Doc Martin reminds me a bit of a short lived American TV series called Becker. Ted Danson played this down and out physician who set up a GP practice in a poor area of the Bronx. He had an irascible temperament and a hilarious tendency to tell patients exactly what he thought which I was always a bit envious of.Funny... I was just thinking how politely and verbosely my doctor told me yesterday: "You're fat, you need exercise and stop eating crap food." :lol: Take care, Derek
Marcus Welby MD
I remember one patient of mine, an older woman had watched an episode of ER where a transplant team drops a heart on the floor. Apparently it skids across the floor and under a cabinet where it is then fished out and implanted into the patient. She was very upset and wanted to know how often that sort of thing happens in the OR in real life. I can't blame her for asking since she has never worked in this field and can't understand how much is wrong with that scene but I do blame the producers of the show for throwing all sensibility out the window just to create a shocking image. It seems to me there is enough drama in real life that they shouldn't have to exaggerate and distort things like this to make it interesting.I believe that was a 'scrubs' episode. Lol! No, but once at a hospital where I used to work, they sent a newbie to pick up an organ and he brought back the wrong one. Luckily, they never remove the old organ until they re-examine and re-approve the old one. Luckily, someone was able to bring back the correct organ in a timely manner and the transplant was done. He never lived that mistake down. I have also seen cases where they pick up the heart (each team harvests their own organ, because there is a specific way the surgeon wants it done (from my understanding), and the harvesting doesn't begin until all teams are present and proceed in a set order) and after bringing it back, it is rejected and the patient is brought back to the ICU. The Thoratec ventricular assist device has enabled the surgeons to be a lot pickier.
For the record, the closest thing to an accurate medical show I have seen in years is Scrubs. Its silly at times but entertaining and for the most part pretty accurate. House , Chicago Hope, Grey's Anatomy and ER were all garbage.Scrubs is the most accurate? That's surprising; How about "Doc Martin"? Scrubs is a comedy obviously so there is some exaggeration for effect but the medicine in the show, the way they portray residency and the story lines is far closer to real life than anything I've ever seen in any of those other shows. The characters are much more realistic except where they are intentional caricatures ( ie. the chief of medicine). Medical residents in the show actually do what medical residents do in real life and surgical resident do what surgical residents do in real life. In most shows resident duties are whatever they need to be to fulfill the story line and bare no resemblance to real life. You often see a single resident performing the duties of a internal medicine resident, a surgery resident, a radiology resident, and an oncology fellow. Viewers may like these heroic, able to do anything doctors but it just silliness when you've been there and done that and realize how impossible that would be. The other thing thats always funny is that the doctors spend entire days or weeks taking care of one or two patients. But if you're going to visit the patients home and family to get clues that will help them treat the patient and still have time to sleep with a couple of nurses and save the world we can't expect them to actually see the 20 or so patients in a day that a real doctor has to see if he is going to keep the lights on and pay the staff. I've never actually seen Doc Martin. I had never heard of it until a few months ago when a friend brought it to my attention. I understand its a British show about a doc in a small town. I'll have to see if they have it on Netflix when i get a chance. You should take a look sometime. It is not so doctor-oriented as small-town oriented, though there are some medical themes. His character is one who has no bedside manner and he has a fear of blood, which makes for some funny situations. It's shown on PBS stations, so I'm surprised you don't get it without having to resort to Netflix. Lois
I'm a fan of "Doc Martin". I really have no idea about whether the show is medically realistic or not, but one of the most interesting aspects is the way the public is shown using the British medical system. In the U.S. you could base a whole series about the crisis middle and low income face in just trying to get and pay for medical care, in Britain access to basic health care is a given, it's really not even a plot point in the show. Yeah, no one needs to tell me that the British health system is far from perfect, and one of the major points of the show is the difficulty of getting a really good physician to work in a small remote town, but as a person who has struggled to even get health insurance, and lived in the fear of any even moderately serious illness or accident creating a financial catastrophe, it sure looks better than what we have.It's pretty hard to get a good physician to work in a small remote town in the US, too. The British system is far from perfect but it's head and shoulders above the American system when it comes to people who are not independently wealthy. Their mortality rates are better, too. Lois
I’d have to check out ‘Doc Martin’, but ‘Scrubs’ aside from the silliness, was the show which portrayed what I do best. I loved that show.