Ill doctors unable to take time to recover

OVERWORKED doctors who fall ill are either unable to take time off or are forced to return to work before fully recovering, a GP survey has found.

The survey, which will be discussed today at the first national conference on the health of doctors, found up to 60% of GPs fell into this category.

Many of the 500 family doctors surveyed had concerns about their health but were reluctant to seek treatment from a colleague.

They tended to deny their own symptoms and illnesses, and delay seeking help or advice as well as self-diagnosing, self-investigating, self-prescribing and self-treating.

Researcher Dr Andrée Rochford, director of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) “Health in Practice” Programme (HiPP), said this reluctance stemmed from fear of being seen as incompetent by colleagues or from a culture in the medical profession where doctors were trained to look after patients and not themselves.

“There is an expectation among doctors to look after their own problems which is completely at odds with the advice we give to patients. The survey found the attitude in the profession as a whole is one of ‘corridor consultations’, where doctors don’t have a full examination or consultation, but have a few words in the corridor with a colleague about their health concerns.”

Dr Rochford said the study had also found 96% of GPs surveyed believed there should be a formal dedicated system of healthcare to counteract the culture of doctors treating themselves and to overcome their disinclination to being treated by colleagues.

“A lot of doctors feel it was the career path they have chosen, so they stick with it, but a number have considered changing speciality or leaving the profession altogether,” Dr Rochford said.

GPs also had problems with substance abuse. “Doctors are no different to the rest of the population,” Dr Rochford said.

Today’s conference ‘Caring for Colleagues, Caring for Self, in Sickness and in Health’, hosted by the ICGP and the Medical Council of Ireland, is the first of its type in Ireland and will focus on ways of promoting the physical and psychological health and wellbeing of doctors.

Health Minister Mary Harney will open the conference at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin at 9.00am.