KARACHI, Aug 2: Doctors at an open discussion programme, organized by Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, were advised to listen more to patients which will not only help them in better diagnosis of the disease but also develop patients’ trust in them.

The discussion held on Friday was part of Continuous Medical Education programme being held at Sobhraj for its employee and post- graduate doctors, where Dr. Anwar Ali of Loughter Health Centre, UK gave a presentation on latest research in patient-doctor relationship and consultation techniques.

Dr. Anwar said consultation is basic unit of doctor’s job and once patient consults, everything else follows, such as appropriate investigation, appropriate diagnosis, satisfied patient and reduce stress on doctor and staff.

He said according to a study if a doctor listen to his patient only for 11 seconds, many psychological problems of the patient could be solved whereas, the doctor would be in a better position for diagnosis, he said and called for a change in the attitude of doctors towards patients for their better participation.

He stressed that consultation is a meeting of experts: as a doctor is expert in medicine and therapeutics, while the patient is an expert in how he/she feels and what he thinks or fears, may be wrong.

A good consultation allows patient’s real needs to be identified and addressed, he asserted and referred to studies according to which there are six styles of consultation: three of whom are authoritative including, prescriptive, directive and confrontational whereas the other three are facilitative which are cathartic (releasing feelings), catalytic (facilitating ideas) and supportive.

Most of the clinical therapy is doctor-centred which deals only with presented problem, doctor’s agenda, hypothesis based medical model, excessive reference to medical records and computer whereas the patient-centred approach may need to deal with other problems, most of whom are undefined, encompass patient’s health belief’s and partnership attitude.

According to Dr. Anwer doctor-patient relationship must be based upon professionalism with humanity, confidentiality, listening and communication skills.

Doctors must be prepared for dealing with uncertainty/anger/ crisis/complaints and multiple dimensions, such as family, occupation, hidden agendas, learned illness behaviour. However, it must be within the safety net and boundaries; therefore, it must be an ongoing and growing relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

Doctors also discussed strategy for successful consultation where a doctor must try to understand certain questions like why a patient has come now or is there any other reason for the problem faced by patient.

It may be mentioned here that Sobhraj maternity Hospital (SMH) regularly conducts reproductive health awareness programmes for general public and its patients and post-graduate doctors, while a menopause awareness programme will soon be launched for teachers of City Government schools soon after start of the session.

SMH is currently observing its 74th foundation anniversary which was founded in 1928 by Chetumal Sobhraj in memory of his wife Mrs Kishendevi Sobhraj.

Dr. Shabeen Naz Masood, Medical Superintendent, Sobhraj Medical Centre on the occasion mentioned that some 60,000 out-patients are attended each year against 8000 admitted patients during the same period.

She observed that despite massive workload the renovation work is not very frequent causing inconvenience to both patients as well as health care providers.—PPI/APP