The government misses the days when the sick knew nothing
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:20 pm
The government misses the days when the sick knew nothing
Most fascinating in this dance between the health ministers and the MS lobby is the way it reflects a larger debate in progress in many other medical theatres. Pesky patients clamouring for the latest in medical procedures are a nuisance for the medical establishment as well as the government, both of which would prefer to be dealing with the comparatively subservient public that existed before the Internet. How nostalgic government and the medical establishment must be for that era when they knew best, when patients were less informed and amounted to lemmings directed by doctor or government edict. Patients couldn’t possibly understand the complexity of medical issues, then. And this attitude persists today, in the doctors who decry the Internet as dangerous, because it equips patients with all sorts of information on treatments, which they will then demand from their doctors and Medicare administrators.
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Most fascinating in this dance between the health ministers and the MS lobby is the way it reflects a larger debate in progress in many other medical theatres. Pesky patients clamouring for the latest in medical procedures are a nuisance for the medical establishment as well as the government, both of which would prefer to be dealing with the comparatively subservient public that existed before the Internet. How nostalgic government and the medical establishment must be for that era when they knew best, when patients were less informed and amounted to lemmings directed by doctor or government edict. Patients couldn’t possibly understand the complexity of medical issues, then. And this attitude persists today, in the doctors who decry the Internet as dangerous, because it equips patients with all sorts of information on treatments, which they will then demand from their doctors and Medicare administrators.
Read more: <shortened url>