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Friday 15 March 2013

Easy Living - Advice on finding a Private Specialist Doctor

Seek out doctors who do research AND
those who spend 5 days a week treating your condition 
Mark Whiteley was featured as one of the Doctors in April's "Easy Living" magazine.

In the article  "What Doctor's only tell their friends" Mark makes 2 suggestions when looking for a specialist doctor:

1] Look for a specialist who is actively involved and doing research. If you want the latest and best treatments, you want a doctor who is keeping up to date and who has access to the latest equipment

2] Look for a doctor who treats your condition 5 days per week. There is no point in finding a doctor who only does a few cases like yours each week ....like everyone, doctors only get really good at something with continual practice.

In the speciality of Varicose Veins treatments, most doctors who "do" varicose veins only treat them half a day or one day per week. Most are "vascular surgeons" or "general surgeons" who spend most of the week doing other operations such as aneurysms, bypasses or other sorts of major surgery. Not surprisingly, when they come to try to do vein surgery, they will not have as much practice as those specialists who do vein surgery every day.

2 comments:

  1. That last paragraph smacks of desparation. Superficial venous disease is not a complex endovenous treatment needing surgeons to perform it on a daily basis to be good. Vascular surgeons perform supercomplex endovascular aneurysm repairs 2-3 times a month and those who are good maintain their skills perfectly well with excellent outcomes. I perform endovenous procedures both RFA and Laser 1.5 days a week and get excellent results for my patients from a bespoke approach to their venous problem. Please do not scare patients.

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  2. Thank you for your comments Patrick. You do not have to post as "anonymous" when you make the same comments elsewhere under your own name :-)

    It is not scaring patients that I write such things ... It is the large number of patients that come to me who have had "successful" endovenous ablation but still have visible reticular veins, thread veins or recurrences due to a untreated pelvic veins or untreated perforating veins.

    Although the occasional case may be acceptable to you, patients with anything but the simplest of varicose veins require particular treatments and skills that are not usually found in those who only practice this sort of surgery 1.5 days a week.

    I would be very interested to see your published results of your "excellent" outcomes - particularly your patient satisfaction.

    If you are only performing endovenous surgery 1.5 days a week, how you possibly keeping up to date with all the new techniques such as EVRF, glue, pelvic vein embolisation etc. You simply will not have enough hours in a week or enough patients to assess to be able to keep on top of your game.

    Therefore your "excellent" outcomes will be relative to someone who is a vascular surgeon and dabbles at veins. It is interesting that vascular surgeons or general surgeons who want to do a few veins on side hold your views, whereas those of us who perform research and deal with veins every day realise the true depth of the subject.

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