The Medical Dismissal Study

Many people have both positive and negative experiences when accessing healthcare. Often, people report feeling dismissed or not believed by healthcare professionals, particularly when conditions are poorly understood or stigmatised. The researchers want to learn more about what makes these experiences feel positive or negative, how they affect people emotionally and physically, and what could improve them in the future. In this study, they want to create and test a new scale to measure the medical dismissal. Developing a new scale may help researchers to better understand medical dismissal, and to improve training for healthcare professionals, and the quality of healthcare services.  

Who can take part?

They would like to hear from people who:  

• are aged 18 years or older 

• are based in the UK 

• have a diagnosis of a long-term condition (e.g., alopecia, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, IBS, depression) or have experienced a persistent symptom for a period of 6 months 

• have used or tried to use healthcare services at least 5 times in the past two years for any kind of health issue. This includes:
  • seeing or trying to see a GP, pharmacist, physiotherapist, specialist clinic, or hospital service
  • calling NHS 111, 999, or another health advice line for yourself
  • being placed on a waiting list
  • any other interaction with healthcare services whether face-to-face, online, or by phone

What does it involve?

If you decide to take part, this study will involve: 

1. Baseline questionnaire. After you have consented you will go through to an online questionnaire. This will ask about your demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, education level, long-term condition diagnosis), experiences of medical dismissal, mental health and physical health. This will take about 30-40 minutes to complete. 

2. Follow-up questionnaires. For each follow-up questionnaire, you will receive an email containing a link to an online questionnaire. 

1-week: One week later you will receive the 1-week follow up questionnaire. It will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete

3-months: In 3 months time you will receive the 3-month follow up questionnaire. It will take approximately 20-25 minutes to complete. When this is complete, you will receive a £5 Amazon voucher as a thank you for your time.

6-months: In 6 months time you will receive the 6-month follow up questionnaire. It will take approximately 20-25 minutes to complete. When this is complete, you will receive a £5 Amazon voucher as a thank you for your time. 

More information and how to take part

Find out more information by contacting the team at [email protected], or through the study link https://qualtrics.kcl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_bQ4mjWRERLuWWtU.