Asking MN to consider removing incorrect medical advice on medical threads…

No one is posting here out of stupidity.

No, but it would be stupid to assume that because an anonymous stranger has given 'medical advice', that means it's automatically correct.

People are not idiots for posting for medical help on MN. I’d expect they are absolutely desperate with the shambles of our health service’s lack of accessibility and a lot of the time they want reassurance or signposting. Very often I see posters that have been fobbed off already by a GP or A+E, or discouraged from seeking medical attention by misguided relatives. No one is posting here out of stupidity.

Surely the best thing to do if you know that the medical advice a pp has given on a thread is incorrect would be to:

1 Post on the thread challenging the incorrect information and explaining why you think it is incorrect.

2 Post a link to the correct information as per the NHS website or similar, and tagging the OP in that post so they know it is there.

3 report the post to MNHQ if you feel it to be necessary.

God, don't be so rude, @NoCommentingFromNowOn . There are perfectly good reasons for MNHQ to refuse the role of monitoring and assessing medical info posted on the site. The strongest one being that it would give the impression that posts left standing had passed some sort of basic threshold of accuracy.

Sure, there are some clearly false posts that it would be uncontroversial to zap. But these are the least dangerous precisely because they are such obvious rubbish. And zapping them would mean that the million misleading posts that remained would have more of the aura of truth about them.

And whose word are they meant to take, when deciding whether such-and-such a post is misleading? The word of the posters who complain about the post? They are just randomers too, you know.

In a lot of ways I'm not the greatest fan of mumsnet the company, but my experience of moderation is that it is genuinely well-intentioned and largely sensible. Doesn't seem fair or kind to insult people who are doing their job conscientiously.

The poster on the thread we were talking about doubled down repeatedly, presumably to cause a reaction, because nobody can be as thick as to persist in peddling misinformation when everyone else has explained why they are wrong. I think that’s against talk guidelines?

But that would involve them employing a doctor and would presumably also open them to legal liability since it is more dangerous if people think they can trust the information on here because it has been reviewed.

As it is it is very clear that info is from lay people not experts and you should check with qualified sources. I don’t think that’s a problem?

Sorry? Do you need to Google to find out if peaches cure cancer or not?

I can confidently tell you that no they do not cure cancer. I think the mods should be able to switch their brains on and agree with me on that one.

Most of the legal advice here is a load of rubbish too. I wish people wouldn’t comment unless they really know what they’re talking about.

OK but what do you want them to do. As someone said above do you want MNHQ to be googling medical advice or call 111 themselves? How do they know what is correct and what isn’t outside of posts like the diabetes one where the incorrect comments were quite obvious The op should never have posted it was ridiculous to ask that question on here

Hmmm I find this quite paternalistic tbh.

There are some conditions that are routinely dismissed by medical professionals - for example, endometriosis. Why shouldn't people reach out to others in a similar position?

They don't need to adopt advice, after all. They might just read it and think about it.

It's also the case that medical advice changes and there are sometimes grey areas. For example, it would once have been thought fanciful that you could reverse prediabetes through dietary changes, but of course that can be done in some cases.

Why should people not discuss those things?

@BeckyAMumsnet perhaps there should be a permanent warning header on the health threads, pointing out that there are safer options than thread eg phone 111, see a pharmacist, phone gp etc.
It might make posters think twice before relying on information from unknowns.

There's a massive difference between a kind 'better safe than sorry, get him checked out' and 'he's obviously got a hangover/it's been hot, he's dehydrated' which is what that spectacularly unpleasant poster was saying.
But overall yes, perhaps ALL medical advice should be banned because anyone can say they are a GP and how would anyone know otherwise.

On most fb groups/forums where people go for support with their conditions, i.e. condition specific groups, medical advice is not allowed and those posts are removed.

So maybe the medical board should be removed altogether.

The trouble is that once MNHQ take responsibility for removing inaccurate medical info, then people will have a greater tendency to believe that posts that remain are accurate, because they haven't been deleted.

And MNHQ's legal liability will potentially be increased, because, having taken responsibility in some cases they can't reasonably deny it in others.

Much better, and more workable, therefore, for MNHQ to do as they do now -- simply make it clear that (as we should all know in any case) there is no reason to trust what is said by forum randomers.

And of course anyone who believes info in a post to be wrong can say so in the thread.

We do have personal responsibility. MNHQ can't replace that.

I think asking for medical advice on a forum is foolhardy. Even when someone professes to be a doctor or nurse, they could be anyone. 111, pharmacies and A&E are the appropriate places to seek advice.
I'm not keen on the WLI threads either, where people are advising slim people how to provide deceitful photographs in order to get a prescription.

How about people just taking personal responsibility?

For God’s sake this whole notion that other people should be considered responsible if some idiot does something stupid like take the words on a chat forum as gospel and comes to harm as a result needs to stop.

If someone in a licenced medical setting gives wrong advice and someone suffers detriment as a result then of course they’re at fault.

But if someone goes on to a chat forum and takes the advice of someone who goes by a random nickname, then they and they alone are to blame if they follow that advice and something bad happens.

We’re all adults here. We’re all responsible for our own lives and the decisions we make. Nobody else.

People need to seek medical advice from medical professionals and not on here - that's the crux of the issue. It's not the job of MNHQ to police the threads for what is/is not accurate advice - plus how would they know? I doubt they have an array of people with medical qualifications ready and standing by to scrutinise every thread that mentions advice. People need to get advice from the proper place - the NHS - it's open 24/7 after all

Anyone who relies on mn for medical advice is an idiot to start with. The blame lies there. Call 111

I asked mumsnet to take a post down that was riddled with incorrect advice (I’m an NHS consultant). They did not respond and it remains on the site.

I too was horrified that you would post about symptoms on a forum like this instead of seeking advice- I mean you’re literally better off asking Chat GPT than surveying a 100 people who’s neighbours dog once had similar symptoms.

I'm not disagreeing that terrible medical advice is everywhere but it's never that clear cut. How would mn know that the person reporting knows what they are talking about?

The only circumstances I can see it working in would be if there was a link provided by the person reporting to an NHS page stating the official medical advice. So for example if someone asked about drinking alcohol during pregnancy, there is explicit guidance on the NHS page that mumsnet hq could base their decision on. I'm not sure if that exists for the circumstances in the post you are referring to.

No, but incases were posters DO know the correct medical advice & report wrong advice it should be removed

How would that work though OP if the person is in Ireland, Europe or anywhere else where health systems might be different to where the reader lives? What if my medical opinion or experience is different to another medical professionals and we all flag up posts?

MNHQ can't possibly sit there all day Googling to see if all information given is correct.

The responsibility lies purely with the person asking for information, because they know full well they could be given incorrect advice.

People need to see chat forums for what they are.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment of this, I don't think it's workable. As PP have said they would need a team of medical consultants, plus the ability to distinguish between what is blatantly wrong on what is debatable depending on your medical standpoint.

They could definitely put much bigger disclaimers up though. Some of this does rest with the OP's as well - posting to thousands of unqualified randoms asking for medical advice isn't the wisest thing to do. Or maybe just say it isn't a site for medical questions and delete medical threads as they come up.