Patients use NICE to challenge doctors
pharmafile | December 4, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NICE
Patients are increasingly holding doctors to account by bringing NICE guidance with them to consultations.
Debate at NICE's annual conference revealed that patients across the UK regularly consult the institute's advice on maternity care and diabetes before seeing doctors about their condition.
The trend shows how much NICE's public profile has grown in its ten years in existence and was welcomed by the Institute, which said it was necessary for patients to have expectations of the services they need and to get involved in their delivery.
Chairman professor Michael Rawlins said: "I think it's wonderful and I'm all for it. I've always said this should be about patients from the very beginning.
"I want patients to come into the consulting room and say 'why aren't you treating me like this?'"
The GP and broadcaster Dr Phil Hammond, who facilitated the conference, joked that perhaps GPs should start laminating guidelines and hanging them in waiting rooms.
Reflecting on the phenomenon of the 'informed patient', he said the trend seemed to be proof of the patient becoming a partner in healthcare – a concept promoted by government and other stakeholders in healthcare.
But the satisfaction around NICE's influence was tempered by an acknowledgement that not all people and sections of the community were benefitting. Even the simplified guidance written for patients used concepts and jargon that was not accessible to some communities.
One healthcare professional present at the conference revealed he had tried to improve access by taking copies of NICE guidance to the travelling and gypsy community of Gloucestershire.
However, even the simplified guidance written for patients often uses difficult concepts and jargon.
"We need to make sure that guidance is not just a plaything of the middle classes," Dr Phil Hammond said. "We need to make sure it helps us invert the pyramid."
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