Doctors issue warning about overtreating patients

"NHS tests and drugs 'do more harm than good'," is the headline in The Telegraph, while The Guardian warns: "Doctors to withhold treatments in campaign against 'too much medicine'." Both of these alarmist headlines are reactions to a widely reported opinion piece from representatives of the UK's Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC) in the BMJ about the launch of a campaign to reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment in the UK. However, the article does not suggest that doctors should "withhold" effective treatments, or say that all, or most, NHS tests and drugs do more harm than good.   Who wrote the opinion piece? The piece was written by a group of doctors representing the UK's AMRC. The academy represents all medical royal colleges in the UK. The authors include Dr Aseem Malhotra, consultant clinical associate at the AMRC, Dr Richard Lehman, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, and Professor Sir Muir Gray, the founder of the NHS Choices Behind the Headlines service. The piece marks the launch of the Choosing Widely campaign in the UK. The campaign is already underway in the US and Canada. Its purpose is to ask medical organisations to identify five commonly used tests or treatments in their specialities that may be unnecessary, and should be questioned and discussed with their patients. An example given on the website for the US Choosing Wisely campaign is the routine use of X-rays for first-line management of acute lo...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Medication QA articles Source Type: news