A cliche that comes to life in this study:
Younger doctors were particularly likely to self-prescribe, with 49% doing so, according to the survey.A quarter of the GPs said they were suffering from depression and more than half reported having trouble sleeping.
The GMC says doctors should not treat themselves and should be registered with an independent GP.
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- Doctors treating themselves
- The digitally empowered patient
- What kind of patient no-shows?
- Hospitalists and the importance of the patient-doctor interaction
- Can Twitter be used for doctor-patient communication?
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{ 5 comments }
Since I’ve spent the past four days (including 10 phone calls and two trips to the pharmacy) trying to get my hands on a very straightforward prescription refill from my family doctor’s office, I can see why.
Next time I’m just going to write myself the damn script. I don’t have this kind of time to waste.
Now you know what the patients have to deal with.
At least you can write your own script; the rest of us lowly schlubs are just forced to put up with the frustation.
Go to the office to get the prescription. Maybe they’ll see you after the drug reps leave. Until then, you can just amuse yourself in the waiting room by reading year-old copies of Newsweek.
In my practice of psychiatry, nearly every doctor who comes in has attempted self-prescribing first (usually out of the sample cabinet).
This is a bad idea because the organ that exercises judgement and self-perception, the brain, is the one affected. It is also the one he uses to practice medicine with and care should be taken with it.
I understand it, especially given the problems with access, and with fear about privacy, but it is a bad idea. Some medical boards unfortunately indirectly encourage self-treatment by being too intrusive about liscensees psychiatric treatment history. The ones they need to worry about are the ones who will not seek formal treatment and will not answer the boards questions honestly anyway, so they may as well not ask–and in not asking would leave people feeling less inhibited about seeking help.
On the other hand, if a guy wants to treat treat his own sinusitus or eczema, why should the board care? Does he have a fool for a patient? Maybe, but who else is put at risk? The basic requirement of a free society is that people be allowed to screw up as long as they aren’t hurting other people.
DTC ads now let Joe Schmoe choose his own meds too. Take for example Caduet. It has two ingredients. One is Amlodipine and the other is Atorvastatin. With my RxDrugCard I can get 30 tablets of Amlodipine for $9 and 30 tablets of Simvastatin for $9. I’ll bet they are charging more than $18 for this new drug!
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