Should we trust the specialists? | David Healy and Nick Lane go head to head

Psychiatrist David Healy and biochemist Nick Lane debate the dangers of the medical industry - was specialisation created for profit rather than for health?

This exerpt is from the debate 'Life, death and specialisation,' filmed at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in May of 2023.

Once, the doctor would diagnose anything from a broken leg to bronchitis. Now students can choose from over 200 medical specialisations. In the past decade alone, referrals to specialists have doubled. Most see this revolution as a huge win. But is this a mistake? You are no more likely to survive in a specialist cardiac unit than you are at home. While medical errors have become the third biggest killer in the US and UK, and specialisation contributes through poor communication and incorrect diagnosis.

Do we need to give up the idea that the specialist is always the best answer and redirect funding elsewhere? Is it possible that the health of the body is not divisible into separate discrete units, but needs to be seen as a whole? Or is this to undermine the radical advances specialist medicine has contributed and which will drive the breakthroughs of the future?

#Medical #Specialisation #WhatIsKillingUs

David Healy is a psychiatrist, scientist, author and professor of psychiatry at Bangor University in the United Kingdom.

Nick Lane is a British biochemist and outstanding science communicator, asking the difficult question: what is the origin of life? He is a Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London and a bestselling author.

[BlakeElliott]

Big Pharma has a lot to be held accountable for. In both civil and criminal courts of law.

[williamralph]

I am a family physician, I am a generalist and a professional-I do not slavishly follow 'guidelines'.I take an individualised approach to problems not broad public health population approachs.The latter benefits Big Pharma the former the individual patient.

[rl]

No one is talking about eating healthy, exercise and taking care of YOURSELF !!!

[JasonAshworth]

Dr David Healy is a ground breaking individual and thinks outside the box, compared to other individuals and cares about the human race. You can see and hear that in his expression. He has wrote countless books on various subjects within medicine.

[albacan]

I respect those who work in.emergency and avoid all others

[janswimwild]

Owning and taking responsibility for our own health is crucial to any healing process. I have ME/CFS diagnosed almost thirty years ago and in that time I’ve rarely seen a doctor. I did have a great GO who eventually diagnosed the ME and helped me find a way forward and then trusted me to see him if I needed help. He was rare and I am very wary of visiting my GP practice now.

[Anna-flsv]

Nobody discusses the fact that it's our insurance industry that makes decisions on our lives. Most have no medical experience but it's not about your health and well being. It's about saving money.

[melstricker]

What they seem to be saying is, that if a doctor tells you to do something like taking a specific medicine, then it is up to you, the patient, to do the research to determine the efficacy of this medication and its side effects (which could be severe), I always question my doctor because I want to know everything about my diagnosis and what is being used to treat the medical issue I may have and what happens if I do not do anything about this medical issue.. So, be an advocate of your own health.

[StillAliveAndKicking_]

Doctors are not bureaucrats, they examine patients to determine the issue if any. That requires considerable expertise. Once they have a diagnosis, then they treat according to guidelines. And why not? They cannot remember every treatment, every medicine, every option.

[margueriteoreilly]

I know use theraptics after my Intellectual Autistic symptoms by 90 percent
My own Gut Anixety that left me I hospital for 5 years am of so many meds that made me so ill for 5 years in hospital 5 times a year
Belfast Ireland 🇮🇪 living symptom free ....as long as I take theraptics

[henk-]

I don't really like this video, modern medicine has saved millions of lives even though it has many flaws. It's always good to be critical but don't stop taking your meds just because some guy on the internet tells you.

[JAYDUBYAH]

amazing you would so irresponsible to platform a psychiatrist bloviating as if he knows “what’s wrong with medicine today” and encourages “doing your own research” saying you’ll be better informed than a specialist!

[richardlynch]

Thank you for this. What I've learned through 36 years of disabilities, is that I have to be my own advocate in the system. My doc isn't sitting at the dinner table fretting to their family about my condition. Also, if you go to a specialist, you will be getting treatment for whatever specialty that doc has. Caveat emptor

[nomcognom]

Yes, one or more specialists might kill you, and that is exactly what you want, because this way, you are a lot more likely to live way longer.

If you are unlucky to need a specialist and get a bad one, or see him in a bad day, he might not prevent your premature death or might even cause it. But you should always consider seeing more than one specialist, if things get worrying. But again, the more specialists you see, the higher the chance of picking and following the bad one and die prematurely.

This can happen, but it is a lot more frequent for specialists to save your life than ruin it. A lot more.

If you don't seek a specialist when needed, on the other hand, you are way more likely to get worse and die preventably early, if it is something serious. Many things, eventually, alone or put together, get serious, if they weren't initially.

Random decisions and courses of action, based on personal guesses and subjective "experience", instead of scientific professional knowledge, will kill you far, far more often, then the odd mistake or bad luck when applying science.

It is plain stupid not to see available specialists when health issues arise.

[Rnankn]

Isn’t health-as-treatment the problem? Medicine does not advise us on health-as-prevention. In large measure, there is limited science on solutions that do not being someone a profit, because in capitalist societies, illness is profitable. Which speaks to the larger theme, that it is not possible to be healthy in a sick society. Poverty, isolation, and despair are health issues which require remaking human relationships to each other, and nature.

[cjwill]

I had a big back problem when i was a kid. Had to see private osteopath £60 an hour.
Doctor gave me cream!!

[kathyd]

Big pharma and the medical system need to stop treating symptoms and treat the cause. When you simply treat symptoms you get more symptoms. You can't heal until you fix the cause.
We don't need more pharmaceuticals that treat symptoms while causing negative side effects or damage to our bodies,
We need medicine that treats the cause of the symptoms when dietary and/or lifestyle changes aren't enough. And we need the medical system to know, understand, and inform patients of the dietary and/or lifestyle changes that would improve the patient's ailments.

[chriswilliams]

Very disappointed that you should put up a psychiatrist, talking about things he doesn’t and can’t understand. Plus the biochemist, blathering about his personal prejudices.

[margueriteoreilly]

Excally we need professionals
My body was destroyed by taking
Kapok
Tramdol
Sertline
And loads over meds from NHS due to being hit by a car 🚗 2014 ...my body still isn't fixed due to the a letter here a letter there 2024 ....my boy still isn't fixed
We need experts
The NHS use to be brilliant....my parents both died of cancer over 25 years care they got was unbelievable.
Know cancer care it spreads through before they even get Praying 🙏 that good sense and improvements happen for all our Famlies Belfast Ireland 🇮🇪

[tvviewer]

Vaccine scar tissue is serious business