Self-help medicine

Re “Drug plan cuts out doctors,” Oct. 5

When I have flu or infection symptoms, I call my doctor’s office and the nurse tells me that she’ll consult him and call in the prescription to the pharmacy. It’s obvious that in practice, doctors are regularly prescribing without examining and are letting patients do some self-diagnosing, allowing the doctor to attend to more critical or complicated patient complaints. Why not just codify it and save us all some time and money?

Barry H. Davis

Agoura Hills