Cancer survivor calls for new GP protocol
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A woman whose stage four cancer was undetected until she attended a hospital emergency ward in agony says GPs should be forced to ask patients if they are satisfied at the end of each visit.
But the AMA says such a system would be unwieldy and many GPs already invite feedback.
Queensland mother of two Jodie Guerrero, 40, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2006 after seven GPs failed to notice it over 21 visits. This was despite pain and other symptoms throughout her body.
Now in remission, Ms Guerrero is fighting for consumer health rights. She wants a feedback option at the end of each GP consultation and a national alert system to ensure GPs recognise symptoms of lymphoma and other cancers.
Through her blog, www.jodiesjourney.com, she has heard from hundreds of others not diagnosed until it was almost too late. “My doctor kept telling me that I was fine,” she said.
Ms Guerrero, who has fought two bouts of cancer, also wants more official support for young adult cancer suffers aged 25-40 who often fall through the cracks, especially mothers like her.
Under her plan, which she put to then Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon three years ago without any joy, GPs would ask each patient at the end of a consultation if they were happy or would like further testing.
This would avoid tricky situations where the doctor may become defensive. It would also give patients, many of whom are intimidated by doctors, the courage to speak up if needed.
“And then you could very happily say yes or no and not feel that you’re putting him down … or offending him,” Ms Guerrero says.
The alert system could involve video information sent to GPs about the symptoms of lymphoma, other blood cancers and possibly other serious diseases they were not trained to detect in detail.
Ms Guerrero said this would be particularly helpful in rural areas, where people often had the same GP for life and didn’t seek second opinions.
She said she met one woman whose country GP told her she had a sore hip. “This poor woman couldn’t walk because her hip was being eaten away by cancer,” Ms Guerrero said.
AMA Queensland president Dr Richard Kidd said good GPs already invited feedback from patients and all GPs underwent rigorous continuing re-education.
Dr Richard Kidd
Dr Kidd said most GPs were also time poor so mandated Q&As were not feasible. But patients unhappy with their treatment should speak up and if that failed complain to the relevant authorities.
“You must be sure that you’re comfortable with your doctor,” he said. “It’s really important that people are comfortable and trust and have confidence in their doctor.”
Consumers Health Forum of Australia CEO Carol Bennett said Jodie’s story illustrated the need for greater vigilance across the health system.
Ms Bennett said the new Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care had the potential to enhance safety and quality in the health care system.
But its standards and guidelines were voluntary, and incentives or sanctions were needed to encourage and enforce compliance.
“Otherwise we run the risk of seeing a Commission developing high quality standards and guidelines which have no value because they are not adopted by our health care services,” she said.
Federal Opposition Health and Ageing spokesman Peter Dutton said keeping GPs up to date with diagnosis and treatment protocols was a challenge, but technology had helped.
He said under the Howard Government the percentage of GPs using computers rose from 17-94 per cent, “which greatly improved the quality of data and access to relevant patient information.”
“It is also important that adequate funding is available for patient support organisations and advocacy groups to ensure patients are informed and important issues acted upon,” he said.
“Complaint handling processes also need to be efficient, thorough and transparent to facilitate continual improvement in our health system.”
10:40 pm
What a wonderful article!! Many thanks to talented journalist, Cheryl Critchley for her hard work and research into this story.
For full details on my case, post diagnosis, investigated by the Queensland Medical Board, go to:
http://www.jodiesjourney.com/jodies_case
Like the layers of an onion, this is just the outer layer of the many people’s stories. My experiences are just the tip of the iceberg. The majority of people I encounter have a story of delayed diagnosis and the accounts I have heard are truly frightening.
Daily worldwide, consumers with serious disease are dismissed by doctors, clinicians and/or therapists who are aligned to the fact that this particular consumer is probably a ‘Hypochondriac’.
Health consumers have a voice and CAN stop the damage & curb the misery, implementing systems that halt this very real ‘get em in/get em out’ mentality present in many of our GP offices today. Almost like a ‘fast-food’ system our GP’s are tired, stressed and pushed beyond what their bodies & minds can cope with. ‘Would you like fries with that, or maybe a script’?
We need to support them (GP’s) to support us, by offering real suggestions that may not cost anything, but save thousands of lives. Let’s look back to the day when a doctor’s visit was 20 minutes long and none of us felt rushed, ‘under the gun’ or pressured by surgery managers to see more patients & to make more money.
Doctor Richard Kidd – I would love to meet you, have a chat and tell you about my experiences. You are welcome to read my documentation from the medical board about the mess that almost killed me. The board agreed with me, that something very bad had occurred and my gut instinct was correct. As a result, the board disciplined my former GP.
Doctor Kidd – Lets discuss your comments and views – I have a number of points in relation to your comments:
A CONSUMER POINT-OF-VIEW.
(First of all, don’t get me wrong, I love my GP – he is changing my life and caring for me and all my complex needs. I like ALL GP’s – but, I want to see less people get dismissed and less GP’s stressed beyond belief. Working together: AMA & Consumer is the only way).
*Mandated Q&As ARE feasible.
*If they take less than 30 seconds, feasibility in terms of what a doctor thinks should not be priority – SAFETY FIRST.
*Patient satisfaction always number one.
*Finding a ‘good’ GP these days is extremely hard.
*If a family moves, good luck in locating a new one ‘good’ GP.
*Finding a GP that will take the time to listen and who has the time to listen, is even harder.
*Therefore getting treatment is like getting blood out of a stone.
*Patients are generally not informed to complain to authorities, but rather to seek further opinions.
*Patients (these days) unhappy with their treatment – often feel intimidated in a doctor’s office & rushed out.
*Most patients do not know where to go to complain, agencies like Queensland’s ‘Health Quality & Complaints Commission’ is barely known about, by consumers.
*You can’t be comfortable with your dr. if you can’t find an interested one, in the first place.
The system is broken and needs to be fixed. Consumers need more understanding, empathy & respect in terms of their valuable opinion from groups at the top of the tree, like the AMA. We can’t fix the system, unless we respectfully work together to identify the problems, put lives first and feasibility a distant second.
We’re all in this together – let’s make a big difference and change a system that is obviously not addressing the needs of the people. I couldn’t count the amount of patients I have met, in the chemo chair next to me recounting their pain and how long they have to live, who have suffered tremendously when they are pushed aside, by their GP. Go into any cancer wards, and discover countless stories like this….ready to be told and learnt from.
There are some wonderful GP’s out there and some fabulous clinics – but, I don’t see the needs of patients valued anymore, rather the needs of the pocket, in terms of getting more patients in-then out, and making more money. Let’s make this issue a priority and reform a GP system into the world’s best. We all deserve it.
9:49 pm
Making sure that you like and trust your GP is great in theory. However, if you have only ever visited for flu’s, vague rashes, immunisations and the like, (in other words, a GP’s bread and butter), how are you going to know if they are going to be up to the challenge when you present with something complex and serious.
While not as serious as Jodie’s issue, we took our daughter to the GP twice late in 2010, as she was coughing continually and vomitting. It wound up being whooping cough, and would have required only a throat swab to diagnose it. As it was, it was misdiagnosed both times, and my husband and I ended up contracting it as well. We were sick for months for something that should have been spotted easily and tested in the early stages. Prior to that experience, we had always had perfect confidence in our doctors.
9:21 am
Well written, Nicola – there are so many stories out there and we need to improve the system. Jodie.