M.A. James, consultant cardiologist, like most others who submitted
a rapid response, missed the point. There is no such thing as a free
lunch. Someone pays for it and in this case, the “someones” have no
choice in the matter.
Whether through direct payment or subsidies from taxation, dinners,
pens, weekends in luxury resorts etc. are added to the cost of medication
and it is the patient who picks up the tab every time. They are the hosts
who never get thanked.
It has been argued that “freebies” makes no difference to patient
care; that doctors are not influenced; that they make up their own minds
about what to prescribe and how much. The medical “error” statistics say
otherwise. Whether through inappropriate prescribing or misdiagnoses by
the “opinion” pushers who protect manufacturers of disease causing
chemicals, the statistics tell a very different story.
Calling the burgeoning numbers who are protesting in the press and on
the internet as activists does not change the fact that the medical
profession is the author of that particular situation. The enthusiastic
response entitled “Enough Already” is a case in point. This piece offers
an explanation as to why ME, GWS, MCS and other such conditions are
labeled as hysteria, malingering, or hypochondria. Dress it up or dress
it down, people are being hurt and even killed by those “harmless”
freebies.
Rapid Response:
The hosts who never get a 'thank you'.
M.A. James, consultant cardiologist, like most others who submitted
a rapid response, missed the point. There is no such thing as a free
lunch. Someone pays for it and in this case, the “someones” have no
choice in the matter.
Whether through direct payment or subsidies from taxation, dinners,
pens, weekends in luxury resorts etc. are added to the cost of medication
and it is the patient who picks up the tab every time. They are the hosts
who never get thanked.
It has been argued that “freebies” makes no difference to patient
care; that doctors are not influenced; that they make up their own minds
about what to prescribe and how much. The medical “error” statistics say
otherwise. Whether through inappropriate prescribing or misdiagnoses by
the “opinion” pushers who protect manufacturers of disease causing
chemicals, the statistics tell a very different story.
Calling the burgeoning numbers who are protesting in the press and on
the internet as activists does not change the fact that the medical
profession is the author of that particular situation. The enthusiastic
response entitled “Enough Already” is a case in point. This piece offers
an explanation as to why ME, GWS, MCS and other such conditions are
labeled as hysteria, malingering, or hypochondria. Dress it up or dress
it down, people are being hurt and even killed by those “harmless”
freebies.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests