A
trip to the chemist to collect our relative’s prescriptions led one of the
medical team we are now forced to report on to note the following.
A
patient in the pharmacy who had been to their own doctor was unhappy that they
had not been prescribed for free what they had wanted namely a linctus for a
cough. They had instead been diagnosed quite correctly from the history given so
freely to all those in the chemist’s shop with a simple but very common at this
time of the year viral Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (viral URTI = dry, painful,
cough and a sore throat = painful windpipe, voice change and fever) which
requires no treatment.
Please
remember when visiting your GP to add really, really, really, really bad before
all of the above bog standard symptoms that our GPs see each day and even come
to work at this time of year with all of them at once and no treatment.
What
followed was interrogation of the thick by the thick and gullible for the sole
benefit of private gain. This was not by the degree educated pharmacist but by
their (relatively) untrained dispensing
staff. The team recall a few years ago reading a piece in a much missed medical
blog saying that pharmacists’ accuracy of diagnosis is about 50% the same as
tossing a coin. We do not know if there are any figures for dispensing staff diagnostic accuracy.
The
punter, sorry patient, was asked to describe their cough. Was it chesty, dry,
tickly, or mucus? Was it a cold or flu? Was it bronchial?
A
quick scan round the medicines on display for purchase revealed that all these
words correspond to the stacked items available for purchase by patients as
they waited for their real but mostly free dispensed rather than sold
medicines. No different to sweeties at the supermarket checkouts with free
tissues for any purchase of any “flu” remedies as well.
For our
doctors the questions they ask about diseases of the chest are limited to the
following:
Shortness
of breath
Cough
Sputum
Wheeze
Haemoptysis
(coughing up of blood)
None
of these were asked at the chemists but none of these were on the bottles of
what is little more than legally peddled snake oil or Dr Feelgood which tastes
very, very nice as did Southern Comfort which was once popular at grunt school
and frequently referred to as “cough medicine” because of its taste. Drink too
much too quickly
and you coughed but useless for a cough as it did medically very little or nothing
as did the stacked bottles of Dr. Feelgood cough medicines. It did however taste
very nice but at a cost just like the cough medicines on display all those years ago and with
a secret recipe.
The
patient got what they wanted, for a price, but they had paid for something they
didn’t need and will do them sweet FA.
Amazing
what you learn in a chemist’s shop.
And can anyone can tell us the exact definition of what a “chesty cough” is for
those ignorant idle over paid GPs with more than 2 centuries of medical
experience between them would be very gratefu if you could?
Pharmacists and doctors 2 peoples separated by a common language. And look where the big Society wants the over 75s to go first. Linctus you know it makes sense - to big business.
Praise
be to the Party for dumbing down on the cheap while ensuring that the private
sector benefits from the ignorance of patients and politicians and profits from
such ignorance.
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