“We have worked in recent months with Fismad colleagues in defining integral care pathways, looking for the best way to bring territorial management and patients with acute and chronic diseases of the digestive system closer together”. Thus Ignazio Grattagliano, president of Simg Puglia and referent of gastroenterology for the Italian Society of General Medicine, on the sidelines of the twenty-ninth National Congress of Digestive Diseases promoted by Fismad in Rome.
“They are treatment processes useful for reducing waiting lists and prescribing appropriateness – adds the expert – but we hope that the administrators will put in place all the necessary supports for these projects to be implemented. We are working on two fronts, with fellow gastroenterologists. For our part, trying to train general practitioners who are more attentive and competent towards diseases of the digestive system, so that they become what in Anglo-Saxon countries are called ‘general practitioners with special interest’, i.e. the local doctor with interests in the gastroenterological field ”.
“Colleagues in hospital gastroenterology are looking for the best way – adds Grattagliano – to extend the skills and activities throughout the territory to meet the needs of the general population, of patients who need specialist advice. In this the understanding is strong between us, general practitioners and gastroenterologists, and I hope that in the near future this collaborative form can be implemented in the creation of continuity of care”.
Also for Maria Caterina Parodi, president of Sied (Italian Society of Digestive Endoscopy), the main objective is to “start a collaboration, an integration with the general practitioner – she maintains – creating pathways for the citizen-patient because find a clinical path for pathologies such as dyspepsia with a very high epidemiological impact”.
Approximately 40% of the Italian population – it emerged from the congress – complains of dyspeptic-type disorders, in part reflux-like disorders, “which we all know quite well because they are linked to stress – Parodi points out – it is necessary that these pathologies, minor compared to the more complex, are managed in the area in close collaboration between the gastroenterologist and general practitioner, to facilitate faster access to gastroscopy and intervene in the therapeutic pathway in patients who are resistant to therapy. But it is necessary to help the general practitioner not to underestimate the alarm symptoms that can hide more serious and complex pathologies “.