What have I been telling you for the last ten years? For too long the NHS has been more about plundering our pockets on behalf of the Big Pharma Corporations that looking after our health.
NHS patients are being given drugs and tests they may not need because, as this blog has frequently reported over the years, GPs and hospitals are ‘incentivized’ to prescribe certain drugs, i.e. paid for the quantity not quality of their treatment, senior doctors have revealed in a new report.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said patients should be encouraged to ask if their medical procedures were really necessary, in a bid to halt over-diagnosis and needless treatment of swathes of the population.
In an unprecedented intervention, the medics – who represent all 21 medical royal colleges in the UK – said too many patients were being forced to endure tests and treatments which could do more harm than good.
They said the payments system in the NHS, which means hospitals are paid according to the number of procedures they perform, and GP pay linked to diagnosis and treatment, could act against patients interests.
The report said it was time to wind back the harms of too much medicine and replace a culture of more is better with balanced decision making.
Patients should be encouraged to ask questions such as, ‘Do I really need this test or procedure? What are the risks? Are there simpler safer options? What happens if I do nothing,’ the doctors say.
This news comes as a leading scientist said millions of people should stop taking antidepressants, because their long-term risks outweighed the benefits.
Greenteeth Bites 