I didn't quite say that. But how it works in practice is somewhere inbetween the extremes that people have posted - the doctor always being right and the patient knowing nothing and the patient somehow knowing everything and doctors being useless. The patient is after all the one familiar with their body and what is and isn't normal (to an extent). Depends what you mean by diagnosis really. It relates to one of the points greencreeper made about locums is an important point in this respect. For example one of the cases of kidney stones was being treated for something else but x-rays and other tests picked up evidence of kidney stones but as it was a different department and seen as less urgent the info was sent off to the GPs for referral. Patient went to see GP three times where they said they were sure it wasn't a problem. Had overnight attack, went into A&E, x-rays and other tests carried out immediately, whisked off to the ward, operated on in days, hospital medics wondering later WTF had gone on as they thought the stuff in the GP notes warranted investigation. It wasn't really a case of that person turning up at the surgery and unreasonably saying to the doctor I have this, this and this, it was supported by evidence and symptoms.
What is a GPs job? That's pretty much what people are talking about here.
---------- Post added at 16:17 ---------- Previous post was at 16:04 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
It's not a joke, it's a genuine concern and a concern which would be fuelled by if there are a lack of diagnosis processes. My point is that people should not take to diagnosing their own conditions as opposed to a professional doctor. Those years at medical school are not replaced by google, there is both a lack of quality content on the Internet and an lack of medical training in the oridinary people to understand the information and use it to form a diagnosis.
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The problem is that although they have years of medical training they don't have any meaningful amount of time to make a diagnosis. Yes, they have years and years of experience enough to have hunches and instincts about what someone has but it's applied too hastily and any kind of further investigation is often baulked at. We simply don't have enough capacity in diagnostics in this country and so these restrictions are introduced. The doctor may be right on a number of occasions but the system relies on where it does go wrong that it being sorted out by someone else. Sure there are some people that go to the GPs too often, but there are also a large number that are deterred from doing so when they perhaps should.
The other thing you and maggie seem to be assuming is taking the google thing too literally. Many people get some of their info from other means such as Pharmacists or from what doctors have said to them in the past, perhaps a reoccuring condition. Having doctors and the system act like the 1950s where we're all supposed to take off our cap to them and have them tell us we're all morons is not really the way to run a service.
P.S. I agree about the free prescription, still thinks it's a good policy.