Doctors examining colleagues

I remember seeing a sitcom in the late 80s or early 90s about a private practice with several doctors. In one episode the doctors had to have their annual physicals to maintain some type of insurance, so they decided to give them to each other in a sort of round-robin fashion: A does B, B does C, does D, and D does A. I think one doc was female and the rest were male. Other than the awkardness of the situation, I cannot imagine what the comedy angle was for the episode. The exams were not performed on camera, only referred to after the fact.

As a viewer I imagined what that would be like, to examine your colleague. I suppose real doctors must have their own doctors, but imagine being in a practice and then each year you drew straws or picked a name out of hat to see who would examine you that time. It would also be awkward if you had to schedule your exam during the normal work day, in between seeing your own patients, and having to trade the white coat for the tighty-whities.

It also sounds like a fun roleplaying sceanrio, with a constantly shifting power dynamic.

There is a story like that on zity.

It's one of my favorite.

In the 20 plus years I was in practice I had the privilege of having several colleagues as patients, both for various medical conditions as well as for more routine care. First, I must say I always regarded it as something of an honor to be selected as the physician another physician wants to serve his medical needs. And yes, I had a couple of female physicians who chose me as their physician. In those cases I always asked the patient to select another, ob-gyn provider for care appropriate to that area. But in general I must say I always felt a bit uncomfortable examining another doctor. I was always profoundly aware of the trust and responsibility entrusted to me by a colleague. So it might be totally different in a play scenario but I can assure you, in real life there's pretty much no chance for play between two RL practicing doctors in a clinical setting.

It could certainly be an intriguing scenario for us fans of medical fetishism. However, we must not forget that for us it is a game, while for a real doctor his work is a mission.