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Too much medicine: not enough trust? A response
  1. Joshua Parker
  1. Correspondence to Dr Joshua Parker, Education and Research Centre, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester M13 9WL, UK; joshua.parker{at}doctors.org.uk

Abstract

In their paper ’Too much medicine: not enough trust?' Zoë Fritz and Richard Holton explore the connection between trust and overtreatment and overinvestigation. Whilst their paper is insightful, here I argue that much more could be made of a doctor’s (mis)trust and how this exacerbates overtreatment and overinvestigation. By taking Fritz and Holton’s view of trust as having ‘our best interests at heart’ as my starting point, I argue that doctor’s do not always trust that patients or the system has their interests at heart and so use overtreatment and overinvestigation to protect themselves. I also point to the tensions created by a lack of trust on the doctor’s part as a focal point for much needed sustained ethical analysis.

  • medical error
  • clinical ethics
  • truth disclosure
  • philosophy of medicine

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Footnotes

  • Contributors JP is the sole author of this article.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None decalred.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Patient consent for publication Not required.

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