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Waiting room ambience and provision of opioid substitution therapy in general practice
Author(s) -
Holliday Simon M,
Magin Parker J,
Dunbabin Janet S,
Ewald Ben D,
Henry JulieMarie,
Goode Susan M,
Baker Fran A,
Dunlop Adrian J
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja11.11338
Subject(s) - medicine , addiction , family medicine , opiate , distress , opioid , cross sectional study , psychiatry , emergency medicine , clinical psychology , receptor , pathology
Objective: To assess whether patients receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST) in general practice cause other patients sufficient distress to change practices — a perceived barrier that prevents general practitioners from prescribing OST. Design, setting and participants: A cross‐sectional questionnaire‐based survey of consecutive adult patients in the waiting rooms of a network of research general practices in New South Wales during August – December 2009. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of disturbing waiting room experiences where drug intoxication was considered a factor, discomfort about sharing the waiting room with patients being treated for drug addiction, and likelihood of changing practices if the practice provided specialised care for patients with opiate addiction. Results: From 15 practices (eight OST‐prescribing), 1138 of 1449 invited patients completed questionnaires (response rate, 78.5%). A disturbing experience in any waiting room at any time was reported by 18.0% of respondents (203/1130), with only 3.1% (35/1128) reporting that drug intoxication was a contributing factor. However, 39.3% of respondents (424/1080) would feel uncomfortable sharing the waiting room with someone being treated for drug addiction. Respondents were largely unaware of the OST‐prescribing status of the practice (12.1% of patients attending OST‐prescribing practices [70/579] correctly reported this). Only 15.9% of respondents (165/1037) reported being likely to change practices if theirs provided specialised care for opiate‐addicted patients. In contrast, 28.7% (302/1053) were likely to change practices if consistently kept waiting more than 30 minutes, and 26.6% (275/1033) would likely do so if consultation fees increased by $10. Conclusions: Despite the frequency of stigmatising attitudes towards patients requiring treatment for drug addiction, GPs’ concerns that prescribing OST in their practices would have a negative impact on other patients’ waiting room experiences or on retention of patients seem to be unfounded.