Interesting article by Max Pemberton

[Throid]

This article in The Telegraph goes some way to highlighting why we all have so many problems with doctors - telegraph.co.uk/health/9733... - will things change?

[Hidden]

Thanks so much for posting this, Throid. Really interesting and gives hope to all of us. Innovative treatment is definitely lacking and there are so many patients who are unable to move forward and are just stuck in a perpetual living hell. The part about Mavericks flourishing made me think about Dr S and Dr P. Hopefully this bill will encourage more smart bright doctors like them.xx

[ellarose1234]

Thank you for that Throid. It is a brilliant article and worthy of being printed out and kept. It is all so true and hopefully with Lord Saatchi at the helm he will be listened to. We have been saying the same things on this list since I joined and probably a long time before. It makes you wonder what horrors he came up against during his wife's illness and subsequent death.

[Throid in reply to ellarose1234]

I think innovation and fresh research is long overdue, we need some doctors who are not afraid to take a stand and treat us as people not just patients.

To some extent the blame culture and the fact that people have a tendency to legal action may have had an impact on where we are.

How do we get through to mainstream doctors that there is a major problem here? I really hope Lord Saatchi can get something going and that we can all start to see long overdue changes.

[Hidden]

I dislike the word maverick for any doctor that steps outside the box.

[ellarose1234 in reply to Hidden]

If you mean an unbranded cow then I agree with you but it can mean exactly what those doctors "thinking outside the box" are:

"a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates: Synonyms: nonconformist, individualist; free thinker......"

add to the above "a doctor"....sounds good to me.

[ellarose1234 in reply to Hidden]

sorry I got you wrong there....you feel just the same as me! "always read the question thoroughly" is what my teacher used to say to me...still getting it wrong!

[Hidden in reply to ellarose1234]

No prob, Ellarose. Maverick is always used in such a derogatory way by the press that even though the writer of this feature was using it in the second sense, the lone dissenter, I was dismayed because I think the general perception is 'an unbranded cow'!

[greygoose]

The problem as I see it is that most doctors are neither artists nor scientists, and a lot of them don't seem to have two brain cells to rub together. How many bog-standard GPs are capable of thinking outside the box? How many are capable of thinking inside it, come to that...

Yes, sorry, I'm a cynic, but doctors have done me and my family so much damage. The Shipman trial took place at the time my mother died. The doctor told her she just had flu and he'd come back next Wednesday - a week later. She died that Wednesday morning - of bladder cancer... Nurses at the hospital (who were wonderful, by the way!) told me I should compain about that doctor, but at the time I didn't have the mental or the physical energy. Besides, I thought, what's the point, you can't sue doctors and get away with it. I really don't know why they're worried on that point. They always come up trumps.

Just my take on things... Grey

[ellarose1234 in reply to greygoose]

I agree. It's quite frightening nowadays. They seem to have forgotten how to diagnose completely. That was always the way you could tell a good doctor from a bad one...a good diagnoses and then pass you on to the specialist to sort you out. I was lucky enough to experience that for 40 years...not much bedside manner but great at diagnosing, and then I came to the UK...I couldn't believe what was happening to me! They say " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"..my new doctor liked quoting that to me...and my reply was."perhaps, but no knowledge at all over here could be a death sentence"....I did change Practices!

[greygoose in reply to ellarose1234]

I would have said: are you refering to your own capacities? lol

[ellarose1234 in reply to greygoose]

Ha Ha ! I missed that one. Will remember it for future reference.

[shaws Administrator]

I hope the bill comes to pass. It is not only the new innovations but the ones some use which are unlicensed but have been used for more than 100 years but which the BTA has made false statements about in order for doctors not to prescribe if we don't do well on levo.

[Hidden]

I think so-called 'evidence-based' medicine needs public examination too. It usually refers to mega trials subsidised by Big Pharma that comes up with results they want based on extremely weak evidence that has no relevance for individual people, for example statins.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Absolutely right!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Definitely - Loaded trials... seen plenty of them in my own researches for my own problems, those designed to come up with a certain outcome, or where using something similar (but not quite identical) to the drug they are trying to replace, but using strange dosage or unusual procedure so that is appears to be less effective than the drug they are hoping to be competing with. You can drive a bus through some studies, yet it's incredible how such flimsy evidence seems so willingly believed.

[Hidden]

Thank you for the article.

I'd be sending this article to the doctor whom I believe he needs to read (and to drop him a hint)!

I hate doctors (except few good ones..) - their priority isn't a patient. Their priority is their own career e.g. fat pension, incomes etc.

[Hidden]

I have no trust whatsoever in the general run of doctors. They have feet of clay as far as I am concerned. Although, before hypothryoidism, I didn't think much of many of their treatments and procedures, I didn't think they looked at the bigger picture and were too ready to prescribe drugs, particularly anti-depressants, i always thought they were broadly on my side. With hypo, I have discovered they are not. It was a terrible shock and a very expensive one as I have had to find treatment from a good private doctor.

[Hidden]

Thanks for this. Throid. This is hopeful good news especially effective coming from sources of power and influence. The way it is in some areas you might as well be examined on Skype or by phone.

I would like to see clearer information on my Practice Booklet about my GP's ie., Special interests (medically). Where they were working before type of experience.

There are 9 -5 Docs for cough, colds, pains and those gifted and caring ones are hidden away in the form filling tick box statistical service in NHS.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Might also be interesting to know where they studied...

[hymermad]

I wish thyroid UK could talk to this Maurice Saatchi and give him info about the 7000

People using this site because they are suffering so severely. It is tragic he has lost his wife to such a cruel disease but he obviously feels despair the way medicine is heading as we all do with our thyroid problems being so neglected by GPs and endo's alike.

[snowstorm]

Thank you so much for this. What they fail to grasp is the fact that we, the patients, could (and indeed should) sue the authorities for what I deem to be "Malpractice". Unfortunately for us, we do not have the financial backing in the main. The authorities, however, can find it if they must. This report should be sent to all the health practices in the country.

[Hidden in reply to snowstorm]

"Malpractice" or "Utterly Useless Quacks"?

[Throid in reply to snowstorm]

This guy, a doctor himself, does tend to talk a lot of sense and often hits the nail on the head. It's so frustrating that there are not more like him - having said that I suspect there are but they are afraid to pop their head above the parapet - that's what needs to change!

Snowstorm, how I would love to be able to sue for malpractice! like so many on here I have so many reasons (just not the finances) maybe one day someone will be able to do it.

In the meantime maybe we can find a contact for Saatchi and maybe draft a letter of support for what he is trying to do?

[ladydawny]

am i missing something?

while it may be true in some fields, i don't see 'evidence based' thyroid treatment guidelines. I see guidelines missing out important scientific evidence.

this article seems a bit like an excuse to me.

[ladydawny]

''the Bill sets out a code by which doctors can try alternatives. In this way, it actually offers the patient more security than they have at present because it provides, for the first time, a robust legal framework to encourage responsible innovation in diagnosis and treatment. ''

okay, hope that gets through, but not sure many Drs would use the freedom, mine seem kinda brainwashed!