Multidisciplinary doctor’s clinical practice, confident and difficulties to diagnose, manage and care for dementia in remote area hospital

Abstract Objectives: To examine multidisciplinary doctor‟s clinical practice, confident and difficulties to manage and care for dementia in remote area hospital. Method: A structured self-completed questionnaire, purposive sampling method with 18 multi-specialist doctors from united mission hospital. Results: Key findings are dementia is a complex condition to diagnose and management that takes time to diagnose and current dementia assessment process is conflict between GPs and other professionals. As well as specialist did not consider that diagnosing dementia was benefited, nor current applied diagnostic methods are appropriate and they are skeptical about the advantages of dementia medications and methods which they have practice on primary care. Similarly, GPs detection is not final decision therefore better to make collaboration with others specialist professionals- neither confident to diagnose nor easy to get medicine in the local market. Likewise, neither social support nor day care and memory clinic services are available in the community. Lack of epidemiology knowledge, practice and experience, cost of dementia care, no governmental policy, no early diagnosis are additional barriers aspects to reach accurate diagnosis. Conclusions: Still the diagnostic methodology and practice has not similar to screening dementia so it does not seem significantly benefit in screening. Rather early diagnosis, collaboration with multi specialist doctors, appropriate referral pathways, diagnostic guideline and refined MMSE tool is far better. It is not only issue of primary care doctors‟- and not possible to detect the dementia without collaboration of multi experts group. The burden impact of dementia prevalence has been underestimated in developing countries.