Tackling overmedicalisation: give people the opportunity to learn about self-care

The BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS should make overmedicalisation a major theme for the reasons outlined in Mathew’s brief masterpiece.12 Obviously we do not want a return to the era in which people were refused tests and treatments because of their age, but, apart from geriatric medicine, the medical profession, with the best of intentions, has created an iatrogenic epidemic.About 20% of emergency admissions of people over 65 have drug side effects as the sole cause or an important contributory cause.3 This excellent analysis highlights the need for a new paradigm that promotes self-care as the most important form of healthcare for people with long term conditions. Clinical care is vitally important for diagnosis and acute care, but decisions on what medical treatment, if any, is needed must be made with and by a fully informed “principal”—the person we call a patient. After treatment has been started,…
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