BMJ  2004;329:351 (7 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7461.351-b

Letter

Guidance has high priority in interventional procedures

Objective evidence needs to be provided

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The views expressed by Dent et al about new interventional procedures and about interventional clinicians are disturbing, particularly in view of the positions held by the authors.1 Response from clinicians has been very poor. Is it apathy or acceptance?

Problems with interventional procedures were covered comprehensively, but the solutions proposed were for clinicians more training to evaluate procedures, for manufacturers to do more than the minimum, and for patients to be given more information. These are not proposals that are likely to assure safety for the unsuspecting patient, let alone set the field of interventional procedures alight.

Dent et al claim that new surgical and other interventional procedures are adopted without assessment of their safety and efficacy and offered to patients. This, in spite of the enforcement of clinical governance and the plethora of organisations responsible for patients' interests? There is an underlying moral and ethical dimension. Validity . . . [Full text of this article]

Anton E Joseph, consultant radiologist

Mayday University Hospital, Croydon, Surrey CR7 7YE aejoseph@hotmail.com


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Relevant Article

New interventional procedures
Tom Dent, Sally Wortley, and Bruce Campbell
BMJ 2004 329: 3-4. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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