Medical Choice

The current political agenda emphasises the need for medical choice. Recently I’ve been confronted with this choice and not really known what to do with it……I am intelligent, professional and relatively well informed but I don’t feel qualified to excercise choice

Scenerio 1

I went to the opticians and they found some scarring on the back of my eye and said I should go to the eye clinic. They contacted 2 eye clinics both of which wrote to me to arrange appointments. Nobody had told me that this might happen….I don’t know anything about either clinic. I phoned both and picked the one that offered me the most convenient time. They then changed the time at short notice on two occasions so I went to the other…..But I knew nothing about the care that I would receive (which was excellent).

Scenario 2

To treat or not to treat….My son has a slight speech impediment. I went to the doctors to see if he should have a hearing test as I’d been told that children normally have a hearing test before they start school. The doctor said no…but that he could be referred (infact it was a locum and he said he didn’t know who we could refer him to but he was sure that there was somebody)…the referral came through to the speech and language therapist. The doctor who referred him never heard him speak and I’m concerned that he may not need to see anybody and that the process of going to see a speech therapist may make him self concious.

Scenario 3

The dreaded eye injury…when I injured my eye recently I attended 2 A+E departments. They both saw me quickly, were friendly polite and efficent….but offered slightly different treatments. The first gave me no pain relief to speak of but recommended follow up treatment. The second recommended no follow up treatment but gave me pain killers, a tetnus injection, eye drops and an eye patch. They both felt that the eye ointment was very important and this was given by the first and checked by the second. However I’ve no idea which of the other two approaches was more appropriate….

Incidentally I saw an eye doctor and everything was fine! 

Scenario 4…the dreaded MMR debate- need I say more?