Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Views & Reviews From the Frontline

When it’s worth repeating

BMJ 2009; 339 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2973 (Published 22 July 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2973

Rapid Response:

Mere Functionaries

As health care gets more and more complex and clinical policy with
e.g. screening becomes based on experts who do nothing else but look at
benefits and costs, should GPs bother having any view at all? It is bound
to be ill informed, albeit not necessarily wrong.
I was once asked whether a child should have the MMR at the height of the
autism debate. I wanted to say that I had no views and that people went
into work on a full time basis just to answer the MMR safety issues and if
they said it was safe, I was hardly in any position to offer any
alternative.
Why stress ourselves out? Best just doing what is suggested as best
practice. Patients are at liberty to take their own view if they want,
indeed that is the best outcome

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

26 July 2009
Graeme Mackenzie
GP OUT OF HOURS
North Cumbria