Thyroid Doctors Under Attack

This is another article about what is happening with the medical system in Britain, but it is certainly reflected here in Australia.  This article came through from Mary Shomon from thyroid.about.com and very similar situations have happened here in Australia.

It astounds me how much power the Australian Medical Association has, and how much they interfere with the way a doctor practices.  Of course they need to be able to weed out practitioners who are doing harm, or are ripping off Medicare, but when a doctor is using properly prescribed medicines and is helping, not hurting, patients – they should stay out of way.

I have known some very talented doctors locally who have been vilified by the medical board and have had to change the way they practice medicine or lose their licence.  And as has happened with the doctor in the U.K., it isn’t the patients complaining, but other doctors.  When a doctor expands his field and practices integrative medicine, or uses a more controversial approach (yet backed up by scientific evidence), and has success in an area such as Chronic Fatigue, then word spreads and he or she is usually inundated with patients who have been unable to find the help they need elsewhere.

Then this doctor comes under scrutiny and is usually investigated for the time he takes with patients, the more unusual tests he might order and the type of medicine (natural and orthodox) that he prescribes.  And what is happening to Dr. Sarah Myhill isn’t unusual, which is a very sad state of affairs…

From Mary Shomon:
“Imagine you’ve found a fantastic doctor, and you’re finally getting the help you desperately needed. You’re finally feeling better, and you feel like you owe your life to this doctor. Now imagine that this doctor’s competitors hear about it, and decide, “Hmm…a doctor who is solving difficult health problems, popular with patients, taking away patients from our practices, and taking money out of our pockets. We can’t have that!” And next thing you know, your fantastic doctor is facing charges, not by dissatisfied patients, but by the competing doctors, and soon after, loses the license to practice medicine.

Sound ridiculous? It’s not. It’s actually the situation facing Dr. Sarah Myhill, in the UK, except there is an even more absurd detail. Besides the handful of disgruntled competitors, there’s one typo-filled anonymous complaint letter about her website. And this is why the UK is saying that they want to take away Dr. Myhill’s medical license, and stop her from helping the many hundreds of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, thyroid disease and other patients she helps each year.

If you don’t think it’s happening here in the US as well, think again. In fact, it’s happening here all the time. Clubby cabals of doctors decide it’s time to run successful integrative practitioners out of town, and the next thing you know, there’s a state medical board complaint in the works. We have a chance to speak up, and speak out, and make a difference not only for Dr. Myhill, but for all the other doctors out there who are in the crosshairs of the conventional medical mafia. I hope that every thyroid patient and sympathetic practitioner takes a moment to write to the GMC. I’ve provided all the information in my article. We MUST let them know that patients around the world will not go quietly when the old boy networks try to force us to accept their mediocre, status quo treatments while they silence the great doctors who actually keep us feeling and living well.”

Read the full article by Mary Shomon here, and make sure you join the Facebook page to support Dr. Myhill.

Be assured, that if I hear of any local doctors coming under attack here in Australia, I’ll keep you posted so that we can cause a huge fuss and support our good doctors here too.

Leisa