Patients are being harmed and even killed by badly trained doctors who have not been taught how to prescribe drugs properly, leading experts warn.

Patients 'at risk because doctors not trained to prescribe drugs properly'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Medical students no longer have to prove that they understand how to use many common medicines before they graduate, said Prof David Webb, from Edinburgh University.

Teaching of the subject in medical schools has almost “disappeared”, he added.

Today’s students do not get the chance to practise prescribing under supervision, as previous generations did, and many cannot make the simple calculations needed to assign doses, he added.

Although drugs have become increasing complex over the past 15 years, the teaching of prescribing has declined in medical schools over the same period.

This has meant some nurses are now being taught more about drugs than doctors.

Students no longer have to sit exams specifically in the subject and some are not even taught the basics of how safely to use common drugs like insulin and warfarin, used to thin the blood.

A recent study of patients over the course of their stay at an Edinburgh hospital, found an average of one serious prescribing error per patient.

Although there are no official figures on how many patients have died after being given the wrong drug or the wrong dose, Prof Webb, who outlined his concerns to MPs on the Commons Select Health Committee, said: “The obvious conclusion is that if there are problems with prescribing than that is translating through to patients.”

Prof Jeffrey Aronson, president of the British Pharmacological Society, warned that the number of medical errors was on the rise, in part because of the complexity of using many newer drugs.

He added: “The number of medical errors and adverse drug reactions are on the rise and deaths are on the increase as a result.”"

It's not just the young doctors that are ill-informed; it's the majority of doctors. I've been warning people for many years about the harm done by doctors' reckless prescribing of drugs they know little about...)o: My own health has been destroyed by our overpaid, ill-informed, arrogant medical profession. - Just think of that statement above: "A recent study of patients over the course of their stay at an Edinburgh hospital, found an average of one serious prescribing error per patient"! - That's appalling! - That's just in just one hospital stay! - Indefensible!

See amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Prescribed Steroids: - Potential for Grave Harm. Poor prescribing practices.

It was reported yesterday (19 July 2006) in Britain's "Daily Telegraph" that the British Pharmacological Society has drawn attention to the widespread poor prescribing practices among doctors. See Overdosing doctors - Extracts:

"An alarming warning was issued yesterday by the British Pharmacological Society about the quality of training given to British doctors in the prescribing of drugs. Perversely, as the sophistication and variety of modern medicines have increased, so the amount of time devoted to prescribing skills in the medical curriculum has decreased.

At a briefing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the society, a number of senior pharmacologists, including Mike Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, and David Webb, his Scottish counterpart, described what they clearly regarded as a significant failing in medical education.

Some patients, they said, were undoubtedly dying as a direct result of incorrect prescribing, and many others were having their conditions worsened or were suffering unnecessary complications. It was estimated that between five and 10 per cent of hospital admissions were a result of adverse drug reactions - most of which were avoidable. "

"A doctor who is poorly trained in pharmacology is likely to be more susceptible to heavily advertised and aggressively promoted drugs, and to fashions in prescribing that suit the interests of drug manufacturers more than individual patients. "

I was glad to see this report, especially following on as it does, the Sunday Telegraph's report 'Sleaze in the Medical Profession' of July 9th. Doctors who take drug firm 'freebies' face being struck off -

Extract:

"Last month, a report by Consumers International, a campaign group, said that doctors were continuing to accept kickbacks, gifts, free samples and consulting agreements in exchange for prescribing or promoting drugs. It said that such inducements accounted for a substantial part of the £33 billion spent on product promotion by the industry worldwide each year. In February, it emerged that a senior manager at Abbott Laboratories, the drug company, had taken a hospital doctor to a lap dancing club.

Abbott also admitted providing senior hospital consultants with Wimbledon tickets and taking 63 doctors to a greyhound race meeting in Manchester.

The junkets came to light when a "concerned member of the industry" alerted the authorities. Abbott was later suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, but none of the doctors was disciplined."

As a steroid victim myself, damaged and made morbidly obese by being inappropriately prescribed HRT (without hormone levels being tested first) and by inadequate monitoring and testing thereafter, I feel peculiarly well-placed to add my critical comments.

We are not just badly served by our extremely highly paid doctors, we are ill-served by our politicians and by the Department of Health and by the Parliamentary Select Committees and many other individuals and agencies and professional bodies who should be monitoring these matters. - I wrote well over 30 letters to MPs and Select Committees, medics, scientists, media people and others in 2001 about the dire consequences of inappropriate prescribing - often in high dose - of certain steroids and of HRT and of amitriptyline, an antidepressant drug. And I have sent hundreds of letters since then. To date I have received only one helpful reply - from Professor Sir Richard Doll, agreeing with what I had written about the obesity problems caused by poor prescribing and indicating that these could be lessened by diuretics and/or eating less salt/sodium, a fact I had already deduced. He wrote that all doctors should know this. - Mine didn't - and furthermore, mine CATEGORICALLY refused me diuretics when I asked to try them!

It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the multitude of of serious health problems attendant on these - high blood pressure, osteoporosis, most types of cancer, stroke, high cholesterol and other degenerative diseases.

If you have gained a lot of weight and become obese because of taking prescribed steroids or HRT (or any other prescription drug) then I have very good news for you! - You have gained weight because of excess water stored in your body - mainly in the veins. You are suffering from what is called hypervolaemia - that is, abnormally high blood volume - and it is easy to reduce this abnormally high blood volume by losing some of the excess water. Another name for the problem is sodium retention. - This is the name that often appears in the reference books doctors have, that they use to look up correct doses of drugs they prescribe and side-effects that can result from taking the drugs.

To prevent or reduce the weight gained, you need to cut down on salt and salty food, because the sodium retention has made you sensitive to salt.

I invite you to visit my website - www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk -

and in particular How to lose a lot of the weight gained because of prescribed steroids

and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html