Nutritionist Yulia Timofeev told how to identify medical institutions where patients are forced to spend unreasonably.
According to her, such clinics can be identified even at the registration stage by the abundance of “author’s” and “confidential” methods. Also, the scam scheme often starts with an attractively low price for the initial appointment, after which it turns out that the patient has an unusual problem that requires expensive tests, hospitalization, or surgery.
“People prone to pathological obsessions, anxious parents, pregnant women and those who are easily intimidated are especially vulnerable to such manipulations. To protect yourself, you need to ask the doctor clear questions: why are the prescribed tests useful, how will their results affect treatment, what data does the diagnosis depend on, what are the indications for the procedure or operation,” the doctor said in an interview with Gazeta.ru.
If the specialist avoids answering, or shows sarcasm or aggression, this is a sign of dishonesty. A specialist doctor will certainly explain his prescriptions in accessible language and point to the evidence.
Timofeev also warned that in the fields of alternative medicine – radiation therapy, manual therapy, chiropractic, kinesiology, osteopathy – there are often charlatans who prescribe unreasonably expensive and ineffective training courses.
She noted that the problem of “discharge clinics” in the Russian Federation is exacerbated by competition from paid institutions and low salaries for doctors who receive a “sales target.” But there are also clinics where there is no such plan, where the quality of care is higher, and the specialists are more sympathetic, as they say in condition.
Buying nutritional supplements (dietary supplements) requires special attention, because the market is full of counterfeit products and products of questionable origin. Executive Director of the Federation of Food Supplements Manufacturers SRO, Alexander Zestkov, gave recommendations on how to reduce risks and distinguish between a high-quality product and a dangerous fake.