This is a good article, Doctors do often fail patients and generally this down to ignorance rather than anything else. But it devastating effects of a doctors arrogance cannot be underestimated. When I was only eight years old I became ill, and after some time our GP finally referred me to a specialist in town. Within about five seconds of meeting me the specialist decided that me illness was either due to bad behaviour on my part or was caused by Munchausen’s Syndrome on the part of my mother (or a combination of both). He wrote a letter to my doctor and made a note on my file about his discovery. Needless to say my illness steadily grew worse without treatment. Every month we would be back at the doctors and every month we would be either fobbed off or sent on some wild goose chase of tests when he could stall no longer. Eight years later, after several suicide attempts because I could no longer stand living with my illness I switched doctors. As a result my new doctor had to wait for my file, without the arrogant preconceptions of the doctors before him he diagnosed me within five minutes and sent me of for tests to confirm that fact. Within a year I had received surgery and was recovering well. I suffered eight years of hell because a doctor was arrogant and assumed he know better - without even the slightest shred of evidence to back him up.

If you want arrogance personified follow the Patel case in Queensland.

On the other hand when I was a kid we had a family GP (Dr Graham Thomas, rest his soul) who treated our family for all sorts of the usual maladies. My parents were wise - Dr Thomas would freely admit that when he wasn't sure he'd know someone who was and promptly refer.

My current GP is a woman of that ilk, understanding, smart and quite willing to acknowledge where the limits of her (seemingly extensive) knowledge lie. Let's hear it for the smart ones in the world.

When I was a kid the eye testing doctor tried to put me into glasses. The same year about 1/3 of my class received glasses "for their own good". Fortunately my parents had some sense. My vision was actually perfect and has remained so for the next 30 years! (I still have better than 20:20)
It turns out that despite the "wisdom" of professionals, glasses make good eyes go bad and slightly bad ones get worse. Exercise, activity and most importantly, focussing short and long (ie. Getting outdoors, playing sport, not watching 2D) is essential.
By sitting at a computer all day my eyes could have been degraded. Only by insisting on a window with horizon views and using them when thinking have my eyes remained healthy. The glasses industry, of course, insists that exercise can in no way influence eye health. Good example of "bad science"...actually no science involved, but lots of white coats and opinionated "experts".
This little life lesson has given me an invaluable respect for experts. ("inspect" once, "respect" as often as necessary...which is every time they open their mouths!)

Dr Gunn gives me hope for the future of medicine. In a country where 18,000 Australians die every year because of medical error, hospital-borne infections and adverse reactions to properly prescribed medications (and this is only in the public hospital system!), it is wonderful to see a practitioner who acknowledges the harm that can occur when doctors ignore or are ignorant of drug and vaccine side-effects.

Dr Gunn says that the medical practitioner should, “Do more good than the alternatives”. The problem is - most doctors are ignorant of the alternatives to drug-based treatments.

Imagine the practice of medicine in this country if all medical doctors were required to take courses via the Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (for example - http://www.acnem.org/modules/mastop_publish/) before receiving their MD. Or if the Medical Journal of Australia would pay their journalists to research and write about the benefits of treatment with homoeopathy, herbs, ayurvedic remedies and more.

The arrogance of Western medicine doesn't begin and end with lack of acceptance of the harm done by drugs and surgery - it is also in assuming that though drug-based therapies are relative newcomers to the scene of health science (ayurveda and Chinese Herbal medicine have both been practised for approximately 5,000 years and homoeopathy has been around for longer than Western medicine and is still the treatment of choice in India and other nations), it is the only right answer to each and every ill that troubles mankind or the animal kingdom.

When it comes to health - we are all individuals and deserve to be treated in that way. A one-size fits all approach to medicine will always leave a significant number of its clients with ill-fitting and potentially dangerous treatments.

Kind regards,
Meryl Dorey
Australian Vaccination Network
http://www.avn.org.au
The only difference between a drug and a poison is the dosage...