A new campaign to encourage the public to support doctors in not offering ineffective treatments is being launched in the UK, it was announced today.
The Choosing Wisely project began in the USA and aims to tackle "overdiagnosis" and the waste of resources on unnecessary care.
It will see lists created of common procedures and treatments which some experts say are mostly unnecessary.
The project is being backed by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
Its backers say the lists should help identify at least five procedures in many specialties that should not be used at all.
Writing in The BMJ, cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra says there has been a culture of "more is better."
He writes: “This has resulted in patients sometimes being offered treatments that have only minor benefit and minimal evidence despite the potential for substantial harm and expense.”
The Royal College of GPs said today it would backed the project – but warned its members often come under "considerable pressure" to prescribe.
Chair Professor Maureen Baker said: "It is important that we work together to make people realise that drug or surgical treatment isn’t always the best way forward.
“The RCGP will be supporting the Academy’s Choosing Wisely initiative, and has established its own working group on over-medicalisation to feed into discussion on the topic at the College’s governing Council meeting.”
She added: “Cutting down on inappropriate interventions is in everyone’s best interests – for example, the NHS using fewer antibiotics will be beneficial for wider society by resulting in lower resistance to antibiotics."
The BMJ 13 May 2015 [abstract]
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