Objectives: To determine the adequacy of care received from general practitioners by patients with sexually transmitted diseases or genitourinary symptoms.
Design: Prospective study.
Setting: Hong Kong.
Participants: Diagnoses and drug data obtained from logbooks submitted by doctors studying for the Diploma in Family Medicine and candidates for Fellowship examinations between 1999 and 2002.
Main outcome measures: Diagnosis or symptom of a sexually transmitted disease and prescribed treatment.
Results: Sexually transmitted diseases and genitourinary symptoms accounted for 1.1% of the workload of these community doctors in Hong Kong. The majority of patients were young adult males. The overall standard of treatment was inadequate: both multi-pharmacy and inappropriate treatment was common; in up to 30% of cases, doctors ignored local or international guidelines.
Conclusion: Primary care doctors play an important role in the diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted diseases or genitourinary symptoms in Hong Kong. A high index of suspicion should be maintained and continuing education made available if doctors are to provide an equally high standard of care.