British understatement?

It’s a sad moment for British medicine when the chair of the NHS Alliance, Dr M Dixon, states that ‘only 10% of what doctors do in primary care is evidence-based’.¹ The actual evidence shows that the figure is around 80%!² But even if the 10% figure were correct, this would not lend itself, as Dr Dixon does, to the integration of more unproven treatments into the NHS. We first need to ensure that a therapy generates more good than harm and only subsequently should we consider it for general use. This course of action is not ‘integrated medicine’ but follows the principles of ‘evidence-based medicine’.

1. Times, 17 January 2004.
2. Gill P, Dowe AC, Neal RD et al. Evidence based general practice: a retrospective study of interventions in one training practice. BMJ 1996; 312: 819–21.