[Homeopathic and primary care doctors: how they see each other and how they see their patients: results of a qualitative investigation].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the views of Primary Care and homeopathic doctors in the same geographical and population catchment area towards Homeopathy as a discipline and the motives that bring patients to use its services.

DESIGN

A qualitative study, using in-depth interviews and a focus group.

SETTING

A community of 18,000 inhabitants with a Health Centre and four homeopathic physicians.

PARTICIPANTS

The four homeopathic physicians and nine of the ten doctors from the Health Centre.

METHOD

After face-to-face and later telephone interviews, each of the four homeopathic physicians was interviewed in depth and the author led a focus group with the 9 Health Centre doctors.

MAIN RESULTS

a) From the homeopaths: they emphasised an integrated patient-centred approach. They insisted on their status as doctors and that their treatment was not iatrogenic, etc. b) From PC doctors: They were ignorant of Homeopathy. They identified it with a type of remedy of which they knew nothing, but for which they demanded scientific evidence, etc.

CONCLUSIONS

PC doctors' ignorance of Homeopathy put them at risk of not understanding patients' expectations. It seems that the patient-centred, as against disease-centred, care model is, in practice, outside the scope of PC health delivery.