General practitioners operating in rural communities are much more at risk of suicide than their urban counterparts, delegates at the Rural Medical Satellite Conference for GPs were told. They must be aware of their own health just as much as that of their patients, the weekend gathering in Westport, Co Mayo, heard.
The three-day event was organised by the Irish Institute of Rural Health and the Irish College of General Practitioners, in association with the World Organisation of National Colleges and Academics.
Delegates heard that more than 100 doctors in the United States take their own lives each year, the causes very often being isolation, pressure of work and personal life, and the threat of litigation by patients. According to Dr Greg Down, a GP in Claremont, Australia, the problem has been documented since the 16th century.
"It's not a new problem and the difficulties can often be that we, as doctors, may recognise symptoms of depression and traumatic disorders in our colleagues but we do nothing about them.
"We also allow our health to suffer by working, even when we feel unwell, very often because we suffer guilt if we let our patients down, or because locum duties require us to be available all the time."
Quoting statistics from a survey of rural GPs in Australia, Dr Down said that just 42 per cent of those surveyed admitted to having a GP of their own, which suggested that the remainder assumed full responsibility for looking after their own health.
As a result, many unwell GPs were consequently providing a sloppy health service to their own patients and were therefore working at sub-optimum levels.
"The medical profession in turn has been very damaged because those working in it tend to hide the fact that some doctors are not providing a proper service, and it is because of this that the profession gets a bad name."
Dr Down added that that there was a very simple solution to the problem. "The simplest thing is for the GPs to go and attend a doctor themselves. On top of that they could go fishing or perhaps wind-surfing or, as my 16-year-old son suggests, they should get a life and get a real doctor."
Other subjects covered at the conference included how night calls can adversely affect the health and lifestyle of rural GPs, and how additional skills courses provided by the Irish College of General Practitioners can equip isolated practitioners to save the lives of patients in emergency and cardiac situations.
A case for government backing for a £3 million HEMS helicopter unit for Ireland was strongly made with the arrival of a British-based HEMS in the grounds of the Knockranny Hotel conference venue. Members of the public and the GPs were treated to a simulation of a life-saving procedure on a cardiac emergency patient.