Interesting Links for 12-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• Woman promised a Toyota as a prize, sues when she won a toy Yoda, and wins!
  (tags: law StarWars competition)
• Biggest four UK ISPs switching to opt-in system for pornography. Can't wait to see what gets caught up in this...
  (tags: web internet censorship)
• Woman Sues Because The Trailer Was Not Like The Movie
  (tags: trailers movies usa)
• Letter from a psychopath
  (tags: psychology psychopath)
• EU bans pre-ticked website boxes to aid consumers
  (tags: web eu europe law)
• New information about how the solar system began (and why Pluto is not a planet)
  (tags: pluto astronomy solarsystem)
• Man jailed after reporting theft of his cannabis plants
  (tags: EpicFail cannabis drugs scotland)
• Relationship satisfaction linked to oral contraception
  (tags: contraception relationships hormones)
• Ginger root supplement reduced colon inflammation markers
  (tags: food health)
• Peanut allergy turned off by tricking immune system
  (tags: peanuts allergies health)
• Tighter expenses rules harming MPs' mental health. Now, if only they understood the same about benefit claimants...
  (tags: parliament politics money mentalhealth uk)

Comments

[andrewducker]

I think that part of the problem is that GPs see loads of people who don't want to take on the decisions or don't have a background that would allow them to understand the various factors. They therefore have a tendency to revert to telling people that "X will make things better." and brush over any negatives or qualifications to their statements, so that they can move on to the next patient.

My father is a doctor, and he says that GPs desperately want people that X didn't work for to come back and say so, but most people don't - probably because of the way they were talked to in the first place.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Not having the background or time to understand the various factors is probably a key difficulty in trying to shift to a more patient lead health service.

Also I think is a view that people to to the doctor to be cured and they are the experts and I feel secure if I'm told to take X. I think some people (many - most perhaps) would like the reassurance of a strongly positive prescription (in the broadest sense).

I'm an educated man from a family with a medical background and some scienctific and medical training myself. I know that I don't want to make the time to understand the subtleites of some of my health issues. I just want my GP in her authoratiative Edinburgh brogue to tell me what to do.

There is also a cost in bespoking the care patients recieve. I may post a longer winded ramble about this but I wonder how (or if) we assess if the improved care from more patient lead general consulting is worth the extra cost.