My relative with severe B12 deficiency and neurological symptoms has had a frustrating and stressful battle for months to get the more frequent B12 injections she needs and has just been asked by a GP in her surgery to fill in a form to accept responsibility for injecting more frequently.
We had already asked a GP friend some time ago why they were so reluctant to prescribe injections, and were told it was not allowed as they were afraid of being sued. It seems to confirm that being sued is their biggest fear - years ago, my own GP prescribed the extra thyroxine I needed to become well only when told I would accept responsibility for taking it.
Could it be that offering to accept personal responsibility is the key to getting adequate treatment until more GPs are willing to read and abide by latest research/guidelines and accept it is impossible to overdose.
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Polaris
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My GP only agreed to me being shown how to self inject if I accepted he could not be responsible for what I do at home, which I find very acceptable as in the end they can not be responsible for what you do at home. The other condition was that I come in once a year for bloods so they can see if I am compliant, which I again find very logical and am very happy to have regular monitoring.
I suppose its very obvious from the answer given by Norman Lamb The Minister of State, Department of Health 24th February 2015 , (see;theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?i... ) that your GP is held responsible for your care, and expect that yes they can be sued..
Is it logical though when GPs are generally not up to date and refuse to acknowledge this even when guidelines are pointed out to them (my sister's GP admitted that she knew very little about B12 def.) I would think they'd be more likely now to be sued for permanent neurological damage by not following the latest official guidelines!
Many older people do not have access to research on B12 def., are unaware of symptoms or how serious it can be if left untreated. They trust that the doctor knows best and should not have to rely on their own research or private injections.
Call me cynical but it's surely all a smokescreen by BigPharma to increase the use of expensive drugs - increasing thyroxine enabled my heart, blood pressure and cholesterol to return to normal and avoided the need for B12 depleting drugs, but GP regularly tries to decrease thyroxine again. As with B12, deficiency, thyroid disease affects all the cells and organs, treatment is inexpensive, tests flawed and unreliable and most people only return to health on a higher dose than prescribed.
Yes, we are willing to take responsibility for our own health but this should not prevent GPs from treating patients ethically and responsibly, when the result of not doing so is so life changing and serious.
Here I go again - sorry for rant Marre - not personal, just the result of months of banging my head against brick walls....
Hello Secondchance. Yes possibly, but they don't seem to mind offering flu jabs and blood tests for cholesterol, etc.
I'm sorry, I think I may have given the impression above that my sister was signing for self injecting - it's actually for more injections by the surgery, that would help prevent her the social consequences of becoming seriously ill again. She understood they'd agreed to this some time ago anyway but they then retracted. She is fine with signing as long as they give her the injections
Re:"latest official guidelines" yes but these are for haematologists not GPs..but I totally agree with your rant, and pharma has far to much influence.. very hard not to rant..Marre.
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More frequent B12?
Do i need more frequent injections?
How can I find out if I have Pernicious Anaemia?
Why the battle??
Doctor says no more injections necessary!
