I posted a blog yesterday defending Doctors in a case where the Doctor was accused of negligence when a boy died of Anesthesia overdose during Cosmetic Surgery n Bangalore,India.
It is not that I am always on the side of Doctors.
I have posted a couple of blogs on Doctor' unethical practices including administering useless medicine to patients.
Now Doctors, in a study conducted on Doctors selected at random, for medical practice, have admitted to giving useless medicine like
like low-dose drugs, vitamins, nutritional supplements or an unnecessary exam.
Story:
The surveyed doctors said they prescribed them to induce a “placebo effect,” to reassure patients or because patients pushed for a treatment.
“For authorities to put their heads in the sand and pretend (placebo treatments) are not being given out is not helpful,” said Jeremy Howick of Oxford University, one of the authors of the study, which was published online Wednesday in the journal PLoS One. “We need to think of ways to maximize the benefits of using placebos,” he said.
Howick and colleagues used a Web-based survey and got 783 responses. The sample was drawn from a list that included 71 percent of all doctors registered with the General Medical Council, the governing body for doctors in the U.K.
The survey asked doctors if they had ever used a true placebo, like a sugar pill or another kind of dummy treatment such as a drug not meant for the patient’s condition or a non-essential examination including blood tests and X-rays. Nearly all of the doctors — 97 percent — reported having used some kind of placebo treatment at least once, while 12 percent reported having used a fake pill.
About 77 percent of doctors said they used some kind of placebo treatment every week; more than 80 percent of them said their use in some circumstances was ethical.
The “placebo effect” treatments included unnecessary physical exams, joint injections, physical therapy, peppermint pills for a sore throat and antibiotics for infections where they would not be effective.
Dr. Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Ethics Committee, said he was disappointed by the findings. “Prescribing something that you know is of no value is not ethical,” he said.
A previous study found about half of U.S. doctors regularly give their patients treatments that probably won’t work without telling them, and the practice has been reported elsewhere, including Canada, Denmark and Switzerland. The American Medical Association says physicians may only use placebos if the patient is aware.
In 2011, the German Medical Association recommended doctors use fake pills and other placebo treatments more often and said patients didn’t necessarily need to be told.
Some small studies have found dummy pills work even when patients are explicitly told what they’re getting and others have documented the fake treatments can spark a biological effect in the body.
“For illnesses where there is no truly effective treatment, a placebo or alternative therapy is a fine thing to do,” said Dr. Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University and author of a recent book on placebos. He was not connected to the new study"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/many-uk-doctors-give-patients-useless-drugs-treatments-authorities-say-thats-unethical/2013/03/20/da5f1376-9194-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html
Let me add some more practices, at the ground level , indulged by the Doctors in India.
1.Most of the Doctors do not examine the patients at all.
They hear the symptoms and immediately scribble some Tests.
These 'Tests' have financial implications for the Doctor and the Corporate Hotels, sorry Corporate Hotels.
A scan , in general costs Rs.2000.
But a patient is charged any where between 6000 -8000!
50 % of this , between 3000- 4000 goes to the Doctor.
He gives a cut to the Hospital whee he is a Consultant.
2.The use two different types of pens or inks to write a prescription.
For a a particular type of pen or ink used, the Labs do not conduct any Tests and give a normal parameter Report.
Of course the patient is charged!
Suggesting useless procedures.
This happens mainly in Appendicitis cases.
Appendicitis procedure involves the removal of the Appendix.
Till date no body knows what function Appendix serves and te side effects of removing them.
The patient is threatened that the bursting of Appendix would poison the syste,.which is true.
But that it might be ruptured is a decision for a Doctor to make.
Removal of Uterus.
On unsuspecting patients, i have seen doctors, suggesting removal of the Uterus even for Urine Infection!
Blood Tests.
Same test is repeated for the same patient in a gap of a day!
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