It may not just be the pharmacies who get it wrong. I have now 'cured' a
few patients of their diabetes with a phone call to the GP pointing out that
the diagnostic parameters have been either mis-interpreted or ignored.
I would advise members to look out for suspiciously low glycated Hb and not
to rely on the given diagnosis on requests.
This week's special was a 36 yr old lady who was on metformin and
simvastatin being neither diabetic nor hypercholesterolaemic, having had a
'diagnostic' random glucose of 7.6 mmol/L and a concurrent cholesterol of
2.4 mmol/L
Six months of simvastatin had succeeded in getting the cholesterol down to
1.7 which played havoc with the Friedwald formula, the negative LDL drawing
attention to the situation.
with best wishes
Richard
Richard Mainwaring-Burton
Consultant Biochemist
Queen Mary's Hospital
Sidcup, Kent
DA14 6LT
020-8308-3084
-----Original Message-----
From: A R W Forrest [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 September 2005 10:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: High street pharmacist diabetes testing[Scanned]
Its interesting that the current TV ads for the Diabetic Screening Service
provided by LLoyds Pharmacies features, inter alia, a bus driver. A
diagnosis
of diabetes mellitus for a vocational driving licence holder is a non
trivial
matter. A false positive could be very distressing. See
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/at_a_glance/ch3_diabetes.htm . I hope the pre-testing
counselling at the pharmacy goes into this in some detail!
The General Medical Council has issued clear guidance to Medical
practitioners
with patients who have medical conditions diagnosed that may affect their
ability to drive (see http://www.dvla.gov.uk/at_a_glance/what_is.htm ).
Has the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society issued similar guidance?
Robert Forrest
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------ACB discussion List Information--------
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