Bmc Fam Pract
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Evidence from first world contexts support the notion that strong primary health care teams contain family physicians (FPs). African leaders are looking for evidence from their own context. The roles and scope of practice of FPs are also contextually defined. The South African family medicine discipline has agreed on six roles. These roles were incorporated into a family physician impact assessment tool, previously validated in the Western Cape Province. ⋯ The findings support the need to increase the deployment of family physicians in the DHS and to increase the number being trained as per the national position paper.
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Offenders frequently have substantial healthcare needs and, like many other socially marginalised groups, often receive healthcare in inverse proportion to their needs. Improved continuity of healthcare over time could contribute to addressing these needs. General Practitioners need to be able to support people with complex social and medical problems, even in systems that are not specifically designed to manage individuals with such degrees of complexity. We aimed to examine offenders' perspectives on factors that contributed to, or worked against, creating and sustaining their access to healthcare. ⋯ General Practitioners can make a positive contribution to supporting access to healthcare for an under-served population by facilitating more flexible and less formal access arrangements, by using their relationship skills, and by problem-solving. General Practitioners should recognise their potential to transform people's experience of healthcare whilst working in imperfect systems, particularly with vulnerable and marginalised groups who have complex medical and social needs.
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Patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are common in primary care, and pose a communicative and therapeutic challenge to GPs. Although much has been written about GPs' frustration and difficulties while dealing with these patients, research presenting the patients' perspectives on MUS still seems to be scarce. Existing studies have demonstrated the patients' desire to make sense of symptoms, addressed the necessity for appropriate and acceptable explanation of MUS, and revealed stigmatization of patients with symptoms of mental origin. Treatment in primary care should focus on the patient's most essential needs and concerns. The objective of this paper is to explore Polish patients' perspectives on living with MUS. ⋯ Patients with MUS have their own experiences of illness. They undertake attempts to interpret their symptoms and learn to live with them. The role of the GP in this process is significant, especially when access to psychological help is restricted. Management of patients with MUS in the Polish healthcare system can be improved, if access to psychologists and psychotherapists is facilitated and increased financial resources are allocated for primary care. Patients with MUS can benefit from a video/filmed consultation with a follow-up analysis with their GP.
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Retracted Publication
Al Kharj diabetic patients' perception about diabetes mellitus using revised-illness perception questionnaire (IPQ-R).
Illness perception questionnaires for various medical conditions have become more useful in recent years. However, very few have addressed this issue for Type 2 diabetes in Saudi Arabia. ⋯ Saudis with type 2 diabetes mellitus had appropriate knowledge of their disease. They agreed that diabetes was likely to be permanent and would have major consequences on their lives.