I have responded to the requests on several occasions, mostly on Virgin Atlantic, have always been asked if I have proof (I always do), but always the patient came first before paperwork.
On the last occasion the ground based doctor got fed up with me disagreeing with their suggested treatment (it's much easier to treat a patient that you can see that one who can be described), told me to just treat as best as possible with what I had and for the flight crew to just give them updates. Involved a diversion, patient had 2 weeks in hospital and major surgery to survive albeit minus a useful but not essential body part).
Given the recommended treatment based on what the crew had been able to relay prior to my involvement he would have died somewhere mid Atlantic track. This is in NO way discrediting the crew who had done extremely well in managing him but as non medics weren't looking for the same things, nor phrasing questions as I was and also not able to realize that the signs and symptoms didn't add up to what the patient and ground doctor thought was the diagnosis.
One big issue I found was thanks to the post 911 rules I could not enter the cockpit to speak directly with the doctor and had to relay everything through the purser.
I still have the picture of the fuel dumping prior to diverting, I think we were only about 3 or 4 hours out of LAX for LHR.
HTC