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Wednesday 16 May 2012

The Health Debate (7). Patient Choice and the Conventional Medical Monopoly in the NHS

It was never the intention that the British NHS became a monopoly supplier of just one type of medicine. 

Nonetheless, this is virtually the position as it exists today. All British citizens are all entitled to NHS treatment,"Free at the point of need". But when anyone asks for treatment, we are routinely and unquestioningly given one type of medicine - conventional, drug based medicine. 

 What this usually means is that patients are prescribed pharmaceutical drugs and vaccine, which are are often either useless or dangerous, or both. There are a growing number of people who realise the, and if they are able to do so, seek to avoid it.

 So what should the mainstream media be asking questions about this situation? These are just some of the questions they might ask, if they were doing their job, challenging the conventional medical establishment, and engaging us in "the Health Debate".
  • Why does conventional medical treatment dominate the NHS so completely? Why are patients not offered information about, and access to different medical therapies for treating their illnesses?
  • Why does conventional medicine seek to stop any spending, even small amounts, on homeopathy and other natural medical therapies?
  • Why is the NHS not researching natural, non-drug therapies, like homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, reflexology, and others? How does patient outcomes of such therapies compere with the outcome of conventional medicine?
  • Why is conventional medicine trying to restrict and refuse patients access to natural therapies, what is their justification for doing so, and are they pursuing and supporting their own vested self interests in doing so?
  • Why, when patients are entitled to, and have paid for medical treatment on the NHS, are they being routinely denied access to the therapy of their choice?
  • Should each patients not have the right to make an informed decision about the medical therapy they wish to use to treat their illness?
  • Why does the media allow conventional medical spokespersons to says that certain illnesses and diseases are 'untreatable' when they are treatable using natural medical therapies?
Every British political party now speaks about ‘patient choice’. Yet for patients to be able to make real informed choice, and for any patient to give real informed consent to treatment, they need access to information about all medical therapies, not just one.

 The NHS, and national health services around the world, are currently failing to provide adequate information about natural medical therapies, and to give patients proper, unfettered access to them.
But equally important, the media, in failing to ask these questions, or provide discussion on all these issues. It is failing lamentably in its duty to its readers, listeners and viewers. 

Instead there is a tacit assumption within all mainstream media outlets that conventional medicine is the 'best' medicine for everyone, when for an increasing number of us this is most certainly not the case. More people are now looking for non-drug treatment, and turning to natural medical therapies. Despite this, the media continues to be content to su;port conventional medicine, and to give them exclusive access to news and current affairs. The media demonstrates regularly that it is afraid to question it, fearful of challenging it, and so considers it to be the sole source of medical expertise. Natural therapists are rarely interviewed.

 For real patient choice patients have to be properly and fully informed. This is not just the responsibility of national health services, it is a media duty. Deep-seated hostility towards homeopathy, naturopath, acupuncture, herbal medicine, osteopathy, reflexology, and other medical therapies is failing to give patients the information patients need to make an informed choice.



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