Finally, something reasonable and prudent coming from the UK. It seems the doctors over there are going to campaign against the overuse of antibiotics in an effort to combat deadly drug-resistant strains such MRSA....Using antibiotics too liberally has led to bugs such as MRSA becoming resistant to treatment with the drugs. Most colds, coughs and flu are caused by viruses, which cannot be treated with antibiotics anyway, Mr Johnson points out.
I work in, and know lots of people in the medical community. They all know pediatricians who do what amounts to treating the whining mothers of sick children by prescribing antibiotics when 9 times out of 10, it's a virus and will go away on it's own. If you are one of those whining mothers who drags your kid to the pediatrician demanding antibiotics everytime they have a runny nose, then you are responsible for the existence of MRSA and you should be ashamed. Your kid has an immune system, let it fight off the illness for a few days before taking him to the doctor. Otherwise how will he ever develope immunity?
"But Ed" you whine, "the pediatricians don't have to write the prescription. It's their fault."
Right you are, but the pediatrician knows that if he doesn't write the scrip then the over-protective mom will go to another doctor. They are just preserving their revenue stream. They're wrong, but that's what they're doing. You see, most of these demanding mothers are stay-at-home types who spend most of their daytime either at the gym with a cute trainer, then at the local bistro with their girl-friends drinking martinis for lunch and pinching the rears of the cute wait staff. They sit around telling stories about what great moms they are as proved by their weekly trips to the pediatrician's office. These moms and their indulgent pediatricians are to blame for the drug-resistant bacteria that threaten the rest of us.
6 comments:
Okay, Ed. I usually agree with you, but not on this. If all Dr.s would do the same thing (not give into the whining moms) then mom's would quit trying to find one who is willing to give out drugs that aren't needed. The Dr. should do the right thing regardless. I understand what you are saying but the ultimate responsibility lies with the Dr. IMO. Don't get me wrong, the moms who do that irritate me too, but they aren't able to get the drugs without the dr. Furthermore, a Dr. should understand the enormity of the problem more than a spoiled stay at home mom. I think that should make them more reluctant to give in.
And as far as the stay at home moms.... maybe in the more affluent areas that is true, but I would bet (and know of) a lot of working moms who want the antibiotics because they *can't* miss work and insist that the dr. gives them *something*.
Give the whining moms placebos and send them packing.
or be like my mom, and say tough luck. I probably have a better immune system than 99.9% of America. I'm usually sick once every couple of years, save the occasional runny nose. I dont have allergies, i am in almost perfect health. My mom is a nurse practitioner, and even she doesn't take me to the doctor for presccriptions, and she has the power to write them! take what you want from that, but i am living proof of ed's point.
@freedom,
There is blame to be shared by a lot of people, but the hysterical moms who're too busy to deal with a sick kid are the driving force.
Here is the cycle:
Affluent, over-protective moms, and Medicaid moms for whom health care and drugs are basically free, show up to the pediatrician's office demanding antibiotics for what is almost always a viral infection. Viral infections go away on their own in about three days, but the moms think stupidly that it was the antibiotics that did it, but then they stop the antibiotics midcycle, leaving the kid with resistant bacteria in their bodies. The doctors treat the parents by prescribing antibiotics for kids they know aren't sick for three reasons:1 to get the parents to shut up and go away, 2 to keep the parents as customers, and 3 so they can bill somebody for the visit and tests.
This encourages the parents to continue this ridiculous behavior of medicating their children when they don't need it.
The doctors, always leary of suit-happy patients and lawyers like John Edwards, play it safe and conduct all kinds of tests knowing that the kid probably has only a virus. Plus, they once again get to bill somebody for the testing as well as cover their rear-ends against a career-ending law suit.
Because Medicaid is basically free, those patients drag their kid to the doctor for the smallest things because it's not them who's paying for it.
So you see, the entire system is designed so that every player in it can fleece the taxpayers and profit from it. Moms get treated with antibiotics when their kids get viral sniffles. Doctors bill the insurance companies or Medicaid for unnecessary tests. And of course, the lawyers are always circling, waiting for a doctor to make a mistake so they can pounce and get rich by ending somebody's career.
And who're the victims in this charade of health-care? First is the kids who's immune systems aren't allowed to function because they're always on antibiotics. But secondarily, the taxpayers who's insurance costs skyrocket and who's tax dollars are seized to provide free health care(Medicaid) to people who don't really need it.
I understand what you are saying,(Don't even get me started on people who use the ER as a Dr.'s office) but Ed I whine :)... what I'm saying is a mom can whine all she wants and still won't have access to antibiotics - the dr. is the one who makes it possible and is more responsible because they fully understand the damage they are doing - the stupid whining mom doesn't.
You make a good argument about the law suits though.
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