It comes as a surprise to find that a high percentage of doctors in Canada have been subject to some form of violence. This is coming primarily from patients seeking narcotic painkillers and other drugs.
The study was published in the February issue of the online journal Canadian Family Physician.
Co-author Dr. Peter MacDougall is an anesthetist and pain specialist in Halifax. He is also a medical consultant for a prescription-monitoring program in Nova Scotia. Doctors were increasingly telling him of threats they were getting from patients seeking controlled substances, particularly opioids.
Over 178 of 300 family physicians were polled during a recent continuing medical education course at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Abuse was classified as minor, major and severe.
Minor is listed as being such things as rudeness, belittling comments, loud, angry, insulting or threatening, and rude gestures
Major was described as incidents such as throwing objects, slamming doors, and causing damage to property
Severe involved any kind of physical contact, including harm, and stalking.
Some 95 percent reported incidents of abuse in their careers. Almost half of them reported at least one incident of “major” abuse, 17 percent listed a “severe” incident, 30 percent said they had been repeatedly abused during the past month, and one in ten had been stalked.
One respondent, practising in a rural area, felt very vulnerable to abuse when accosted by a patient seeking a controlled substance. He wrote:
“ Abuse can be implied such as…“I see you have a cottage near XX Park … I would like some [oxycodone].” EVERYONE KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE, WHERE YOUR WIFE WORKS, WHERE YOUR KIDS GO TO SCHOOL.”
Again in a practice an hour outside a city another comment said they had to call 911 about a threatening patient but police retuned the call only three days later.
The paper concluded that a national discussion and further research are both needed regarding abuse of family doctors by patients seeking controlled drugs.
PDF Full report-Journal of Canadian Family Physician (Feb)
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