Re that awful Healthcheck Watchdog ( or is it the other way around? who
knows? who cares?) piece on h pylori---I actually felt moved to get on to
their web site and bitch at them. Gist of what I said as follows:
1. poor piece---expected better from Angela Rippon---who is a fine piece
2. Old news---even the tabloids were covering HP two or three years ago.
3. Need to differentiate between those who take OTC stuff for dyspepsia and
those on repeat H2RAs for ever from GP.
4. Importance of the human factor---ie that not every patient is a Watchdog
clone just champing at the bit to have a precise diagnosis made and get the
jolly old treatment and get rid of that rotten old ulcer once and for all.
Some of my cretins sorry I mean patients proved very reluctant (despite
MAJOR efforts) to part with the long-term therapy.
5. No mention whatsoever, not even a hint that tests and treatment for HP
are anything else than 100% perfect every single time. What part of the
galaxy do these W'dog fools come from?
6. Gentle reminder vis a vis their lash out at drug companies refusing to
research ulcer cures because of potential loss of revenue from long-term
suppressive-----De-Nol was better than Tagamet when given for eight weeks.
7. Finally dig at poor old Mark Porter---I wondered if he was too young to
remember De-Nol versus Tagamet?
<<Why do the journalists think this is a reasonable way of educating th
public!>>
Have you not learned yet? The BBC no longer employs journalists---it
employs two groups of people;
1. "presenters" with regional accents who eventually start to fancy
themselves as journalists and wing it when they have a deadline
2. the occasional competent lightweight journalist/presenter who like as
not says what the researcher found out five minutes before.
And people like that GP in Manchester who contributed are part of the
problem. I am sick to death saying it but those of us who care about use
of the media to educate people on health and disease need to be more
pro-active.
Declan
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