Ethics article in the BMJ

The link below leads to an interesting article on ethics in the British Medical Journal. The gist of it is that doctors have a duty to act professionally towards their patients, even if they dislike or have negative moral feelings towards their patients. It is good that the BMJ should mention this, but the article starts from the point of view that the doctor has actually met the patient (which is completely understandable). Here at AADD UK we have lost count of the number complaints we have had about doctors and other medical staff acting unprofessionally even without ever having met the patient.

By unprofessional we mean, of course, completely ignoring the evidence, text books, guidelines etc and judging anyone that mentions adult ADHD to be not worthy of their (the doctors’) time. We recently had word of a person who had been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult in another country in Europe. She moved to the UK (we won’t mention which health authority in south-west London in particular!) and asked her GP to refer her for continued treatment of her ADHD. The GP was very helpful and wrote a referral letter right away. All she received from the specialist was a letter claiming that they do not treat adult ADHD in that area. Since we have met several people in that catchment area we at AADD UK know for a fact that they do treat adults with ADHD (quite apart from the NICE guidelines and so on).

Click here for the article in the BMJ.