Notification of infectious diseases by junior doctors in accident and emergency departments.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the knowledge about notifiable infectious diseases by accident and emergency (A&E) senior house officers.


METHODS
A telephone questionnaire of senior house officers was carried out over a one week period at the end of their six month attachment in A&E departments in Northern Ireland.


RESULTS
81 (91%) of the senior house officers participated in the study; 23 (29%) realised that the doctor diagnosing the notifiable disease had a statutory duty to notify that disease; nine (11%) were aware there were three statutory lists in the United Kingdom. Knowledge about which infectious diseases require notification varied from 79/81 (98%) for meningococcal disease to 15/91 (19%) for methicillin resistant S aureus. Seventy nine (98%) of the doctors thought that a poster displayed in the A&E department would be helpful. There was no significant difference between duration of qualification and performance on the questionnaire (p = 0.2).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite varying experience, junior doctors in A&E do not know which infectious diseases are notifiable by statute. They felt that it would be helpful to have a poster in the A&E department listing the notifiable diseases of that region. To encourage accurate reporting, interregional variation between the statutory lists should be abolished and replaced by one nationally agreed list.
Spedding
R L
RL
Belfast City Hospital, Northern Ireland, UK.
Jenkins
M G
MG
O'Reilly
S A
SA
D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003625:Data Collection; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009660:Northern Ireland