Towards integrated perioperative medicine: a survey of general practitioners' attitudes, beliefs and behaviours regarding perioperative medicine for older people.

Background: Perioperative optimisation can improve outcomes for older people having surgery. Integration with primary care could improve quality and reduce variability in access to preoperative optimisation.

Aim: Our aim was to explore attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of general practitioners (GPs) regarding the perioperative pathway, and evaluate enablers and barriers to GP-led preoperative optimisation.

Methods: Stakeholder interviews (n=38) informed survey development. A purposive sampling frame was used to target delivery of online and paper surveys. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Results: We had 231 responses (response rate 32.7%). Enablers included belief among GPs that optimisation improves postoperative outcomes (86%) and that they have a role discussing modifiable risk factors with patients (85%). Barriers included low frequency exposure to older surgical patients, minimal training in perioperative medicine and rare interaction with perioperative services.

Conclusion: This survey illustrates the importance of interprofessional education, cross-sector training opportunities and collaboration to deliver integrated preoperative optimisation for older people undergoing surgery.