Are the financial incentives given to UK doctors regarding diabetes doing more harm than good?
Blog entry on Dr John Briffa's blog.
Extracts:
"From April of this year, if GPs can get half of their type 2 diabetic patients to have a HbA1c level (this is a measure of blood sugar control over the preceding 3 months or so) of less than 7 per cent, then the practice gets an additional payment of £3000 ($4250). Prior to this, the target set by the government was 7.5 per cent. Clearly, the government feels that when it comes to HbA1c levels, lower is better."
"It seems that not only is the UK government’s recent move to lower the HbA1c targets for GPs not particularly evidence-based, there is a risk it might actually do more harm than good. The authors of the BMJ piece use some good old-fashioned plain-speak to conclude their piece by stating: “The change of target from 7.5% to 7% should be withdrawn before it wastes resources and possibly harms patients.”"
Increasingly it seems to me that the government favours more and more drug treatment for long-term health problems. This appears to be treating symptoms instead of attacking causes of ill-health. I favour improving diet rather than the ever-increasing prescribing of powerful drugs with all their potential for adverse side-effects.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations
See advice for pregnant mothers
and FAT RETENTION
var sc_project=1725605;
var sc_invisible=0;
var sc_partition=16;
var sc_security="acf71b9a";