Gordon
Had a look at your Health Promotion site and congratulate you. Is the
booking service only available for healthworkers in your area or are there
possibilities for utilising this countrywide? Are any of the resources
dowloadable from the net? I'm thinking of GPs wishing to dowload leaflets
whilst in consultations to give to their patients?
Also message to list mewmbers as a whole. Interesting paper in today's BMJ
regarding patient-centred approach to managing illness etc at Primary Care
level. Although this is not strictly health promotion it raises a few
points for me. Should GPs be changing their practice of managing illness?
Should it be more mento-based? Providing plans of action which patients
can follow including not just prescribing but psychosocial advise and of
course health promotion (fitness, nutrition etc)? Does anybody have
experience of the use of written and mutually agreed action plans which are
handed to patients in primary care? If so, how effective are they?
Details of the BMJ paper:
PATIENTS PREFER COMMUNICATION WITH
DOCTORS, RATHER THAN PRESCRIPTIONS
(Preferences of patients for patient centred approach to
consultation in primary care: observational study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7284/468
People waiting to see their doctor would prefer a "patient
centred approach" to their consultation - including good
communication, partnership with their doctor and health
promotion information - rather than an examination or a
prescription, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
A total of 824 patients in the waiting room of three doctors'
surgeries completed a pre- consultation questionnaire about
what they wanted the doctor to do in the consultation. Three
areas of patient preferences were identified: "communication"
including listening and exploring concerns, "partnership"
including discussion and mutual agreement about treatment,
and "health promotion" including how to stay healthy and
reduce the risks of future illness. Fewer (63%) wanted an
examination and only a quarter wanted a prescription.
Patients with a very strong preference for patient
centredness are those who are vulnerable either
psychosocially or because they are feeling particularly unwell
or worried, and doctors should be sensitive to those
patients, conclude the authors.
Contact:
Paul Little, MRC Clinician Scientist, Community Clinical
Sciences (Primary Medical Care Group), University of
Southampton, Aldermoor Health Centre, Southampton, UK
Email: [log in to unmask]
Regards
Jeremy
|