Patients use net for diagnosis

One in five patients is challenging doctors' advice or diagnosis using knowledge gained from the internet, a survey suggests.

The survey, conducted for the Southern Cross Medical Care Society, showed 73 per cent of people use the internet to get health information and 20 per cent take the information with them when they see their GP.

And 22 per cent used information from the internet to challenge their doctor, although only 1 per cent of respondents said they trusted the information on the web.