As a hobby while on maternity leave, Adelaide doctor Caitlin Sum started a social media group so specialists were easier to find.
“When I set it up, I felt a little bit nervous that nobody would want to join but in fact it’s been the opposite,” she said.
She was surprised at how quickly it took off, with 2134 South Australian doctors joining the Adelaide GP Referral Network on Facebook since 2020.
“It’s filled a gap … that need for quick responses that aren’t urgent and it’s information that is difficult to find elsewhere,” she said.
Dr Sum said the traditional methods of finding a specialist for patients included looking up medical college directories online, asking colleagues or former supervisors or ringing around clinics.
“It probably is one of the trickiest parts of general practice that isn’t clinical work,” she said.
“There’s a bit of an art to finding the right specialist for a patient – there are a lot of things to take into consideration.
“We would all love to spend less time doing admin, and more time seeing our patients.”
A recent Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) report found administrative burden was the top reason some GPs wanted to stop practising in the next five years.
Dr Sum said it was sometimes the simplest things that consumed time for GPs.
One GP asked the group for information about where a patient could be weighed while in a wheelchair.
“It seems like something someone would know, but who do you ask,” Dr Sum said.
She said rehabilitation specialists responded to that post almost immediately with locations the patient could be weighed.
A remote South Australian GP had a patient travelling to Adelaide for one day and used the network to seek a particular specialist with a cancellation. One responded.
A similar group has now been set up in Victoria, which has 800 doctors.
To join both groups, doctors are screened and must be registered by the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency (AHPRA) and abide by their social media policy.
That includes not sharing patients’ information on social media.
GPs seeking specialist appointments using the group must de-identify patients and cannot upload clinical photographs.
Norton Summit GP Dr Alex Main, who is also the Australian Medical Association SA GP committee co-chair, said some specialties were in high demand.
“As general practitioners, we’re quite skilled at dealing with mental health difficulties but there are a small number of patients that would benefit from the involvement of a psychiatrist,” he said.
“We do struggle at times to get our patients in to see a psychiatrist.”
He said social media was a “useful tool” for GPs to find out what services are available in the area and allowed specialists to seek out referrals.
“I think it bridges that gap and allows us to communicate with each other better and get to know each other and communicate directly,” he said.
“If there’s a specialist colleague who is new to the area and [they] post on there and state they have availability, then that sparks my interest.”
RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said she was concerned about patient access to non-GP specialists.
“GPs in the medical profession are hyper-connected and social media and those discussion spaces, just like everyone, is an important resource to connect,” she said.
“One of the challenges is knowing who has got their books open at a particular time.
“We often seek information from our colleagues and social media is one of those platforms that we do use.”
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