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IBS sufferers believe that their doctor is not doing a good job |
This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of Gut Reaction, the journal of the IBS Network. |
This is what most of you told us. In a recent poll of 786 IBS patients commissioned by Almirall Pharma in association with The IBS Network and Core, less than half felt that their GPs were doing a good job in treating IBS. A third felt that their GP didn’t understand their condition. This impression was mirrored by a recent study which indicated that only 14% of GPs felt confident about making a positive diagnosis of IBS on symptoms alone, compared with 48% of community gastroenterologists and 72% of IBS specialists. Most patients in this survey recognised a link with stress. Management: She told us that they have to juggle so many different functions these days and with an average appointment of just seven minutes, there was not enough time to understand what was going on in patients with IBS. GPs saw their essential role as making sure that people are treated quickly and efficiently for potentially life threatening disease, and increasingly to establish preventive measures for at risk populations according to government directives. There is just no time to listen to every patient, who feels unwell. 'We have to employ our time economically and the government does not offer financial incentives for GPs to spend time managing IBS'. A similar situation occurs in hospitals. And, of course, she added with a wry expression, people who feel unwell with illnesses in which there is no clear medical treatment will always believe that their doctors have failed them. The vast majority are highly skilled and dedicated and show a high degree of care and compassion. It’s just that the ever increasing expectations for health care and the demands for disease prevention has created a system that may be failing people with unexplained illnesses like IBS. And there are no signs it is getting any better. Giving GPs the budget to commission services may come to be seen as a cynical exercise in passing the buck and could lead to patchy health care, in which the patients themselves, private enterprise and charities are left to pick up the slack. The team at The IBS Network would like to express their thanks to the 382 members who responded to this survey. The results provide important information to support, stimulate and direct our ongoing educational programme. First published in FoodsMatter in November 2013; first published in Gut Reaction in March 2013 |
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