Increase in staff numbers may reduce doctors' "presenteeism"

BMJ 1999;319:1502 ( 4 December )

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Increase in staff numbers may reduce doctors' "presenteeism"

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EDITOR $---$ Forsythe et al show, on the basis of self reports, that doctors regularly ignore BMA ethical guidelines that adviseagainst self-prescribing or prescribing for colleagues or relatives.¹Concerns about confidentiality were commonly reported. Proposalsto address these problems include more "doctors' doctors" andan improved occupational health service for generalpractitioners.

The opportunities and anxieties that doctors face in their everyday lives may be important factors. For example, researchin Edinburgh in which I participated found that many junior hospitaldoctors were doubtful that an occupational health service hadan effective role for mental health problems.² Anecdotal experiencealso suggests that highly confidential information about colleagues'health problems can quickly enter the hospital grapevine. Doctorsgossip: few in the medical profession will not have heard otherclinicians completely disregard their duty of confidentialityto a doctor-patient. Either they believe that colleagues havean insatiable curiosity or else they . . . [Full text of this article]

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