Abstract
BackgroundThe extra workload induced by patients with mental health problems may sometimes cause GPs to be reluctant to become involved in mental health care. It is known that dealing with patients' mental health problems is more time consuming in specific situations such as in consultations. But it is unclear if GPs who are more often involved in patients' mental health problems, have a higher workload than other GPs. Therefore we investigated the following: Is the attention GPs pay to their patients' mental health problems related to their subjective and objective workload?MethodsSecondary analyses were made using data from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice, a cross sectional study conducted in the Netherlands in 2000–2002. A nationally representative selection of 195 GPs from 104 general practices participated in this National Survey. Data from: 1) a GP questionnaire; 2) a detailed log of the GP's time use during a week and; 3) an electronic medical registration system, including all patients' contacts during a year, were used. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with the GP's workload as an outcome measure, and the GP's attention for mental health problems as a predictor. GP, patient, and practice characteristics were included in analyses as potential confounders.ResultsResults show that GPs with a broader perception of their role towards mental health care do not have more working hours or patient contacts than GPs with a more limited perception of their role. Neither are they more exhausted or dissatisfied with the available time. Also the number of patient contacts in which a psychological or social diagnosis is made is not related to the GP's objective or subjective workload.ConclusionThe GP's attention for a patient's mental health problems is not related to their workload. The GP's extra workload when dealing in a consultation with patients' mental health problems, as is demonstrated in earlier research, is not automatically translated into a higher overall workload. This study does not confirm GPs' complaints that mental health care is one of the components of their job that consumes a lot of their time and energy. Several explanations for these results are discussed.
Highlights
The extra workload induced by patients with mental health problems may sometimes cause General Practitioner (GP) to be reluctant to become involved in mental health care
Design Secondary analyses were made using data from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP2), a cross sectional study conducted in the Netherlands in 2000–2002 [19]
The GP recorded the diagnoses of their patients, coded according to the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) [20]
Summary
Design Secondary analyses were made using data from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP2), a cross sectional study conducted in the Netherlands in 2000–2002 [19]. Dependent: Workload - Working hours weekly (objective) - Number of patient contacts weekly (objective) - Satisfaction with the available time (subjective) - Emotional exhaustion (subjective). The objective workload measures are adjusted to the number of FTEs the GPs are working, in order to distinguish between busy and less busy GPs. Table 3 shows that GPs with a broader perception of their role in mental health care work more hours a week. The two measures that indicated GPs' attention to mental health problems are correlated: GPs with a broader perception of their role in mental health care, more frequently reach a psychological or social diagnosis in the contacts with their patients. Two relationships are found between GPs' subjective workload and the practice population: The GP's satisfaction with the available time is associated with GPs with more older patients on their patient list and secondly, GPs are more exhausted when more women patients are on their patient lists
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
