 Your Doctor This is written from my own perspective as a user of the UK National Health Service which holds a virtual monopoly and the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service, of the HNS, was set up in the 1940s to provide free at the point of contact health care for all UK citizens. And that great strength causes major problem, because visiting your GP in the UK they are generally inundated with a constant flow of complainants some of whom may be seriously ill and other who only think they are. It is their job as front line soldiers for the rest of the health service to screen, test, check, treat and refer onwards to specialist any problems they detect at the first line on contact. The shear weight of numbers in a society which is aging and expectant of high consumer standards, magic bullets, quick fixes and a compensation culture puts the modern General Practitioner under a siege situation. They generally have too many calls upon their resources and have to make rapid and life saving decisions on the front line, however they do have allies in the guide of the multinational Pharmaceutical industry. Medicine is big business, if you can find a treatment (and patent it) for a lifelong medical condition, and you have a customer who’ll pay for it (the NHS) then you have an income stream for life. To the GP the drug companies offer a quick fix, treatment by drugs Most drugs do indeed have valuable, proven therapeutic effects which should not be dismissed but the pressure to treat by prescription is all to strong. I think it was Winston Churchill who started the day by putting the contents of his In-tray straight into his Out-Tray noting that “only a third of it ever comes back” similarly faced with a flood of patients day in day out the temptation for our moderns GPs must be to listen sympathetically, write out a prescription and get them out the door – then if they come back they must need proper attention. You should be aware of the possibility of this happening to you, do not be afraid of visiting your Doctor or to much in awe if him. Never think you are wasting their time, make sure you are seen thoroughly and all your questions are answered. Having diagnosed Hypertension in a patient there is a considerable chemical arsenal of drugs which can be used to treat the condition. In most cases this treatment will be lifelong – that is you will ALWAYS have to take your medication for the rest of your days. And you must follow your Doctor’s prescribing instructions, don’t miss taking your medication and if you don don’t double up the dose the next day, if in doubt ask.
Modern Hypertensive medication can be categorised into a number of different classes |
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