Occupational health in general practice in an industrial area of Singapore

The aim of this study was to estimate the caseload with regard to the propo rtion of work-related medical cases in factory workers and to survey knowle dge of and attitudes to occupational medicine among doctors in an industria l area in Singapore. To this end, a self-administered questionnaire was giv en to 74 general practitioners in the industrial district of Jurong in Sing apore. Overall, there was an 89.2% response rate. Thirty-three of the 66 re spondents were males. Mean age was 40.8 years (range 27-64 years). Twenty-f our (36%) had some postgraduate training in occupational medicine (GP-OM) w hile the rest did not (GIP). The caseload for all doctors was similar with regard to the number of adult patients and, more specifically, the number o f factory workers seen per day. The majority of doctors (76.6%) felt that < 10% of factory workers seen had work-related problems. Most (70%) felt conf ident in dealing with the occupational problems that arose. However, a larg e percentage (78% of GPs, 45.8% of GP-OMs) felt that training in occupation al medicine was inadequate. This is reflected in the knowledge questions, w here GPs did not score as well as GP-OMs. It was concluded that GPs working in this industrial area see a good proportion of factory workers, in a fai r number of cases for work-related problems. However, only a third of the G Ps are qualified in occupational medicine. These factors highlight the need for more emphasis on occupational medicine training among general practiti oners, especially those working in industrial areas.