THE PROPOSAL Focus on online presentations and communications or on meetings with small groups of doctors rather than on outpatient visits General practitioners
Thumbs down from family doctors for the information received from pharmaceutical companies: 75.6% of white coats are dissatisfied and 80% consider it essential that informants know more about the planet of general medicine. The discontent is revealed by a survey by the Fimmg National Study Center, the largest union of general practitioners, which administered a questionnaire of 11 questions to a sample of 900 doctors, representative of the universe of "generalists". There are three main reasons for the disappointment: the lack of knowledge, on the part of the informants, of general medicine, the organizational difficulties and the use of tools and methods now considered obsolete.
"Pharmaceutical companies make available to us professionals with great skills on the specific molecule, but with little knowledge of the territorial reality in which we operate and the programs in which we are involved", explains Fiorenzo Corti, Fimmg communication manager. An example for all: the chronic emergency, which requires family doctors not only to manage long-term pathologies, but also to actively prevent them. Especially focused on respiratory, cardiovascular and rheumatic diseases.
«A good 80% of the sample deems it essential that whistleblowers know how we work», underlines Stefano Zingoni, head of the Fimmg study center and Emilia Romagna secretary. Region in which some steps have already been taken: in the provinces of Ferrara and Forlì, informants of a large pharmaceutical company were trained by Fimmg managers on the working methods and activities of family doctors in the area. «Very useful moments of integration and training», says Zingoni.
According to the doctors, new methods of communication are urgently needed. Online material, as 24,9% of the generalists wishes, or meetings in small groups (13,2%) instead of the visit in the clinic. Gadgets were also rejected: the 56,6% judges them "useless but understandable". Without news, doctors warn, there is a risk of losing interest in scientific information. The organizational front is also sore. The 57.8% of doctors does not schedule appointments with informants; the 37% receives them between visits; only 37,7% sees them by appointment. One in three doctors receives between ten and twenty informants in a month.
Adapt information on drugs to the changing profession: this is the request of doctors. Who are in the midst of a professional revolution, based on teamwork and computerisation. And who are demanding the renewal of the agreement with the NHS, which expired at the end of 2005. Last Wednesday all the white coat unions, from family doctors to paediatricians, proclaimed a state of agitation. They are asking the Council of Ministers to immediately approve the guidelines for the start of the negotiations, approved by the sector Committee in the autumn. It remained in the drawers. Manuela Perrone Il Sole 24 Ore of 02/02/2008 PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS p. 29
