Friday is a holiday. It's like a Sunday in India and elsewhere in the world, but in the Gulf Friday is the Sunday. Most surgeons are off on that day. All the private hospitals have only their emergency departments open. So patients often make a trip hospital to hospital trying to reach an orthopod.
In the initial years, I practised on Friday and took another day off.
The Friday case is a real opportunity, because Friday is a holiday. I did not know then what it would do to my fees. I know now.
Patients cannot judge you by your surgical technique, so they use these kinds of things. The word of referral then becomes a proxy for your surgical technique.
A 2025 study asked 808 joint replacement patients how they found their surgeon. About 45% came on a doctor's referral, 19% by word of mouth, 8% online.
Here in Muscat, most often patients tell me, "My cousin referred me to you. My colleague referred me to you. They said you are the best doctor. You have done surgery for a lot of my colleagues in the office, or many of my cousins have got surgery done by you."
Another patient who has undergone the service, the whole cycle, when they recommend your name to others, it is a very strong recommendation, because the recommendation has come naturally, organically, and nothing is greater than that. That's why giving your full 100% to each and every consultation becomes the most critical thing ever in your practice. Each and every consultation, when you give your best irrespective of whether you end up doing surgery for that patient or not, brings dividends in this manner.
So what are they reading, in that room, if not your hands?
Your honesty. That's what I feel patients look for: is this doctor being honest, truly honest? There are a couple of checkpoints they see.
Often they have a feeling that hospitals and private doctors are out to exploit patients in terms of money and order unnecessary investigations. For me as a surgeon, investigation is not the primary way to get revenue. I make it very crystal clear to the patient that at this point a scan is not necessary, because it's not going to change our line of treatment. Let's wait a few more weeks, and then we can order a scan if necessary.
Then you add a very critical point: you ask the patient for a follow-up. That also signals to the patient that this person is interested in my wellbeing, and that's why he's asking me to come back.
Many doctors don't. Patients tell me, "They don't even look at my face and they write a scan. They don't even touch me and they write a scan."
I remember a patient once said, "Can you look at my scan?" I told him, "I need to see you first and then see the scan. That is the order in which I should go." There is a very simple, disarming way of telling that to the patient. I put a question back to him: "I'm not here to treat the scan. Do you want me to treat you, or do you want me to treat your scan?" That disarms the patient completely. He says, "No, I want you to treat me."