THE ATTITUDES OF PATIENTS AND HEALTH-CARE PERSONNEL TO RECTAL DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOLLOWING DAY-CASE SURGERY

The use of suppositories has been examined following a recent case in which an anaesthetist was reported to the United Kingdom General Medic al Council. This study examined the preference for routes of administr ation of post-operative analgesia. A semistructured interview with a w ritten questionnaire was administered to 610 subjects (49 doctors; 62 nurses; 67 paramedical staff; 44 other hospital employees; 388 patient s). Four hundred and fifty (74%) preferred the intravenous (i.v.) rout e, 24 (4%) preferred a suppository while 136 (22%) found either ro ute acceptable. The i.v. route was most popular with young (98% under 20 years) females (79%) social class I subjects (90%), doctors (96%), nur ses (95%), those who had never had a suppository (81%) and those who h ad ill effects following a previous suppository (95%). This result sug gests that patients are more tolerant of suppositories than hospital s taff but the majority prefer the i.v. route.