Surely not again?

I wrote here a few weeks ago about how disappointed - and angry - I am that so many cancers aren't detected for such a long time. A newspaper article had brought to my attention that misdiagnosis isn't as uncommon as I had hoped. I've just learned that someone (else) I know is being treated for cancer; and yet again, the diagnosis was late in coming, and only after the sufferer persisted in going back to their doctor. Why does this happen so often? Why are patients made to feel as though they're being a nuisance if they don't recover from whatever their GP has told them is wrong with them but, instead, make repeated visits to the surgery? Why don't doctors do the expensive tests first (ok, the answer to that one's obvious!) Surely, in the long run, it would be cheaper to do an expensive test and diagnose something that's in its early stages and treatable than to go through a series of cheaper tests (whose costs add up) and finally make a diagnosis that requires more, and more expensive treatment than it might have done?

If you have to fight the system as well as the illness, it's no wonder so many cancer patients are left feeling lost and angry. Why should we be made to be feel as though we're imagining our illness? What is the point of research into cancer finding more effective treatments if the diagnostic process is so appalling?

Well, I do have some views on that, but they're probably too cynical to be creditable; very sick people may be so desperate to feel better that they'll be willing to participate in any medical trials...