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‘Come in Mr Smith, have a seat. It is very nice to meet you. I believe you are new to this region? Your GP has referred you to clinic with a brief letter saying you’ve had Crohn’s disease for 15 years and been under the care of Professor Brain at Ivory Tower University Hospital and are taking Infliximab and Azathioprine and need follow up in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) clinic? Could you help me fill in the details of your Crohn’s disease over the years?’ Many patients, relatives and most secondary care physicians managing patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) will recognise this moment in a busy outpatient clinic whereby a new patient arrives in the clinic and the physician has suboptimal information from the outset. All continuity is lost; confidence is dented; and everyone feels frustrated by this situation despite often this being no single person’s ‘fault’. In short, transferring a patient between one institution and another is often not easy and, as a result, often not done well. However, to date, the evidence about the quality of care of patients transferring has been lacking, and the often-poor experience of transferring care, while well known and recognised, remains anecdotal. This is of course contrary to the growing recognition and guidance about the importance of transitional care between paediatric and adult care, and the poor health outcomes associated with either a lack or absence of transitional care provision.1
Published in Frontline Gastroenterology, the Gastroenterology London Investigative Network for Trainees, also known as the GLINT trainee network, sought to explore the quality of care of patients with IBD transferring between healthcare providers in a London-based multicentre audit.2 By …
Footnotes
Twitter @DrPhilipJSmith
Contributors PJS prepared, wrote and edited the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests PJS is an associate editor of Frontline Gastroenterology and the digital and education editor of Gut. He is a patient with Crohn’s disease and trustee of the charities IBD Passport, Guts UK and CICRA.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.