I’ve wanted to get this off my chest for some time, so it will make an excellent first post for this blog.  Some years ago, after keeping well clear of them for several decades, I had cause to visit a doctor in order to obtain treatment for an eye condition.  I subsequently entered a kind of “through the looking glass” world where I was bounced around from one hospital consultant to another, tested for conditions of which I displayed no symptoms at all, and suffered repeated attempts to foist unwanted and unnecessary medications on me, 

You might expect this in a system where insurance schemes pay for your care, so that it is in doctors’ interest to maximise their income from these schemes, but this experience was in the British NHS – an excellent, most economical system for organising healthcare and something I always thought of as one of the greatest political achievements of the twentieth century.

I was immediately medicated for high blood pressure (caused by a combination of being overweight and a very stressful business life) and the first of several attempts was made to have me accept the use of statin medication – a class of drugs with such an appalling record of crippling side effects that they would be illegal if they had any recreational applications.  I was also subjected to the attentions of a long list of varied doctors, some of whom were assiduous, systematic and equipped with good patient-facing skills, and others (the majority, alas) who gave misinformation, behaved with rudeness, attempted to frighten me with ridiculous prophecies of doom, or had all the bedside manner of a slippery rock.  Here’s one of those prophets of doom in action: on one occasion my blood count was found to be low since I had just had a bone fracture repaired and had lost some blood during the procedure; this geezer says to me “It’s because you have some malignancy in your body.” Extraordinary, in the total absence of any evidence – indeed there was compelling evidence of a different explanation - but for all I know, this man is still practicing.

I have also been put through tests for conditions for which I displayed no symptoms, with the associated imposition of unnecessary anxiety – and, of course, a ridiculously long wait for the results.  These included more blood tests than you could shake a stick at, a retinal angiogram which involved the botched administration of an injection of contrast material, and – my personal favourite – a cranial MRI scan, the results of which could not be found by the requesting doctor, necessitating a search of all possible locations in the hospital.

As if all this weren’t enough, I was also given high doses of an anti-inflammatory medication (without, be it said, having given informed consent, and with only the sketchiest advice on what to expect) which caused some devastating cognitive effects.  I raised these on almost every one of my two-monthly visits to the hospital, and was almost always met with a bland indifference – except for that one occasion when my consultant offered to refer me to a psychiatrist.  (For what?  Counselling?  More drugs?)

I have, however, been fairly lucky, I suppose: having lost some weight, increased the amount of exercise I take and retired from a stressful business, my blood pressure has reduced and I’ve significantly lowered the amount of medication I use for it.  Additionally, an improved diet has reduced my cholesterol measurements to within the range classified as “normal”, without the use of any statins.  And finally, doses of the dreadful anti-inflammatory I was taking have now reduced to a level which seems to have no mental effect at all.

I’ll conclude this brief war story with a few recommendations – firstly, one to the reader: stay out of the hands of doctors as long as you possibly can, and don’t get involved with them unless you really, really need to.  Much better to adopt a healthy way of life, improve your diet, take exercise and ruthlessly remove sources of stress from your life.  If you do get involved, don’t just swallow anything they throw at you: stand up for yourself.

To the medical establishment, I’d like to propose the following recommendations:

• Don’t insist patients take unnecessary medications, such as statins – unless the patient had a cardiovascular problem these destructive drugs shouldn’t be necessary – patients should be helped to reduce their cholesterol themselves.

• Don’t push patients into unnecessary, invasive and disturbing tests unless you think there’s a very good chance they have the condition the test is designed to detect.  And, for goodness’ sake, get the results back within no more than a few days.

• Take the “side effects” of medications seriously, be sympathetic and be readier to reduce dosages to stop people suffering.

• Drop the scare tactics, and don’t make insensitive comments based on no evidence whatsoever – indeed, don’t make insensitive comments at al: you’re there for the patient’s benefit, not the other way round.

• Respect your patient’s preferences, involve the patient in decisions about treatment and provide evidence-based suggestions.  The patient must be able to say “no” without you throwing a huge tantrum.