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by chrisseaton
1501 days ago
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I'd love to get you to listen in to a phone call where I try to get an appointment with my doctor. You'd have to be up at 0800 on the dot, while I desperately try to get into the phone queue. Then you'll hear me beg with the world's rudest receptionist for an appointment, which I won't get. There's no incentive for these people to be helpful or polite, because they get paid anyway and there's no market, so they aren't. My American colleagues see a doctor every year for a checkup to catch things like cancer before they're fatal. The NHS would laugh in my face if I said I wanted to see a doctor for a checkup, unless I literally had an arm falling off. |
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That said the reason we don't do as much in the way of screening and yearly physicals of young healthy individuals is because there's very limited evidence that it's even helpful and sometimes even evidence that it's harmful.
That isn't to say they don't sometimes save a life, but they also cause unnecessary medical procedures and needless medical anxiety. What kind of early cancer detection is really happening at a yearly physical? You could argue that a doctor telling you to lose weight might help reduce obesity or diabetes, but so far that doesn't seem to be working.
Even if you do catch and treat a cancer, was it a slow progressing cancer that never would have caused an issue for the patient? This is particularly significant when you're looking at someone in their 80s.
If you have any health conditions, have a family history of disease, are taking repeat prescriptions or are above 40, you will start being offered regular checkups and screening.
You can also book a private GP or checkup if you want, or even just pay for a periodic blood test. The NHS/NICE has decided the evidence base doesn't exist to support it, but you're free to decide otherwise if you wish.