The customer is always right has shifted more
to..."next"....and dis-empowerment of patients.

In my experience, dealing with doctors with my
elders, if you want more opinions or second
guess them in any way, you run the risk of getting
black-listed if you are a patient in a medical
"group". Your medical records follow you and so
this is not a good position to be in. I also
have found in my own treatment with allopathic
doctors that if you "go into business for yourself"
and self-treat in ways your doctor takes offense
to, for example acupuncture and chiropractics, you
can also be dumped. I was warned more than once
that my doctor thought chiropractors were quacks.
I learned not to disclose my off-site activities
and not to share any progress by virtue of using
any natural methods.

I found, in my experience, that doctors want as
much control over any variables in their treatment
of you. This is due to the rise in litigation and
so I can understand it to a certain extent but there
is no balance for the most part. For many doctors
and their patients, its "my way or the highway".

While I am sure there are good doctors aplenty,
I also see that there are many needless operations
and drugs and pharmaceutical reps hanging out in
doctor offices with all kinds of enticements. I
do not know what the answers are, but this newest
twist in the equation equals the rug being pulled
from beneath the feet of medical consumers. All
this during a time when wholistic and alternative
methods are also trying to be suppressed or limited
by legislation OR financial controls designed to
develop products into a conglomerate mindset and
little producers are going to be forced out of
business as the big corporations seize the opportunity
to grab their shares of a market they can no longer
control the growth of since people want healthier
options. I just do not like the idea at all of
Proctor and Gamble or Hersheys bottling up my
vitamins and telling me, down the road, its our
way, or the highway....

Its a sad time for health advocates since we are
less individuals as looked at as market potential
and sort of like assets are wasted to produce products
which are later destroyed to keep the prices artificially
elevated, I see that this trend will bring us limited
choices, higher prices, and controls so we are unable
to help ourselves in ways which have worked for
centuries without the oversight of bureaucracy~~

best wishes,
Zoe

-_-