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Re: Corticosteroids for sore throat: a clinical practice guideline- letting the genie out of the bottle...
I really must take the authors to task for effectively assuming that a consultation is a no-cost option. As our colleague Kevork Hopayian has pointed out in his response, we have worked hard over the last few decades to educate patients away from presenting with self limiting sore throats. The GP part of the NHS is under unprecedented pressure and a recommendation which encourages patients to consult for a self-limiting illness is unwelcome, unwarranted and a profligate disregard of Primary Care's most precious commodity- consultation time.
Whilst I understand that the BMJ is an international publication and other countries may have better funded Primary Care with rapid access, promoting a medical intervention with minimal benefit without including the cost of service delivery seems extraordinarily counter-intuitive.
I await the Rapid Recommendation on how to restore the genie to the bottle....
Rapid Response:
Re: Corticosteroids for sore throat: a clinical practice guideline- letting the genie out of the bottle...
I really must take the authors to task for effectively assuming that a consultation is a no-cost option. As our colleague Kevork Hopayian has pointed out in his response, we have worked hard over the last few decades to educate patients away from presenting with self limiting sore throats. The GP part of the NHS is under unprecedented pressure and a recommendation which encourages patients to consult for a self-limiting illness is unwelcome, unwarranted and a profligate disregard of Primary Care's most precious commodity- consultation time.
Whilst I understand that the BMJ is an international publication and other countries may have better funded Primary Care with rapid access, promoting a medical intervention with minimal benefit without including the cost of service delivery seems extraordinarily counter-intuitive.
I await the Rapid Recommendation on how to restore the genie to the bottle....
Competing interests: No competing interests