Doctors admit giving pointless drugs

Doctors confess to handing out antibiotics and ordering x-rays, tests and scans that patients did not need
Doctors confess to handing out antibiotics and ordering x-rays, tests and scans that patients did not need
CORBIS

Four in five doctors admit that they have prescribed pointless treatments, citing a desire to get pushy patients off their backs as the main reason.

Doctors confess to handing out antibiotics and ordering x-rays, tests and scans that patients did not need, in a poll that medical leaders say underlines the need for a cultural shift in medicine towards recognising that many expensive and risky treatments do not improve patients’ lives.

Last week the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges began a campaign to encourage doctors to cut needless care and tell patients that “doing nothing can often be the best approach”.

Now a poll of 500 doctors by the Medix consultancy has found that 83 per cent say they have carried out treatments that they