Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Letters Numbers needed to treat for statins

Statins: numbers needed to treat and personal decision making

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4980 (Published 05 August 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g4980

Rapid Response:

Dr Lewis says that I am working covertly for the drug companies who make statins and antihypertensives and am failing to declare it in the compulsory declaration of interests. This is a serious accusation that I deny and ask him to retract.

By implication all the eminent authors and bodies behind JBS3 (1) are also acting solely out of desire for personal profit. I simply do not believe that so many doctors are so unethical. The reasoning behind JBS3 is not only contained in the document itself, but was eloquently expressed in a recent BMJ article (2).

He goes on to say that I am robbing the NHS and denying cancer patients their medication. All this because I choose to follow expert advice and take generic medication that costs about £2.50 per month. This leftist view of the importance of rationing is the sort of view that gets the NHS a bad name in other developed countries.

I will continue to use JBS3 with myself and my patients.

References

1 Heart 2014;100:ii1-ii67 doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2014-305693
Review
Joint British Societies’ consensus recommendations for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (JBS3)
JBS3 Board

2. Taking a longer term view of cardiovacular risk: the causal exposure paradigm. Allan Snidermann et al. BMJ 2014;348:g3047
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Competing interests: No competing interests

18 August 2014
Richard Watson
General Practitioner
Craigallian Surgery
11 Craigallian Avenue, Glasgow, G72 8RW