Interesting that the onus is being put back on the individual to 'do the research'. I appreciate that many people go to their GP expecting that there is a 'pill for everything' and that somehow they have failed if they do not come out with a prescription, but GPs also need to keep themselves up to date and to sometimes spend a little time advising on life-style. Instead of rebuking me for not taking the prescription of metformin both of the GPs in my practice would have done better to check on how I intended to lower and manage my diabetes without medication. They would then have found out my objections to the suggested medication, that I was monitoring my bloods and reducing carbs, losing weight and keeping it off. I would have felt that I was being treated as a partner in my health not as another statistic, an 'awkward'. All professionals have to attend additional training and are expected to look at others in the profession who are trying something 'new' that is working and decide what they can apply to their own situation. Not everyone has access or knows how to use the internet to do the necessary research. They were brought up in a generation who were told to trust the doctor to know what was best, that is a heavy responsibility for a GP.
I agree with you, it is what came across in the programme. There has to be a change of mindset on both sides of the consulting desk. As was pointed out by Aseem, Ionnides has been quoted as saying that less than 10% of published data currently can be deemed unbiased and based on properly conducted research. This is backed up by former editors of medical journals. So our doctors are at a disadvantage.
As patients we are not always in a position to do research to any meaningful depth (depends on i ternet access and savviness) so some of us are at a disadvantage. That is why I made a point of saying '...to the best of our ability'.
I get where you're coming from with the point about Metformin, I am in the same position wrt statin medication and I feel that the HCPs are just not listening. For me, I am not yet in partnership with my HCPs, I am being dictated to by them. But, let's say I had done absolutely no research on statins, I took them for one week and got side effects so stopped them and that should be a perfectly valid reason but we hear of people being told 'Take the statin or you will die!' regardless of side effects. I do not know why you decided not to take Metformin but your GPs should have had the conversation with you instead of just following 'the pathway'. This is one thing I do not understand, recently I read an OP where the member said they had taken Met for 2 years with ongoing gastric trouble, my immediate response was to ask myself 'Why on earth would anyone suffer that long with Met tummy side effects and not just make the decision to change treatment or discontinue it?' We're all different but saying nowt gets us nowhere.
