Delayed referrals of oral cancer patients: the perception of dental surgeons

The scope of this study was to verify the possible reasons to justify the delay in the referral of oral cancer patients to specialized health care sectors from the standpoint of the dental surgeons involved in Primary Health Care (PHC) in Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul. This target public of this study was dental surgeons working in five different labor environments in PHC in Porto Alegre. Criteria for inclusion was dental surgeons graduated in and working in PHC. The data collection instrument was the focus group technique and application of a structured questionnaire. After data collection, interpretative analysis was conducted with classification of the information under four main headings: professional, team, community and services network. The results suggest that there are several factors associated with delayed in referral of patients with oral cancer to specialized health care sectors. These include omission of early diagnosis, lack of multidisciplinary work and insufficient attention to the need for joint community responsibility with patients for their own health status. It is also due to deficiencies in the health service network, specifically regarding the quality of communication between professionals at different levels of the health services.

Delayed diagnosis; Primary health care; Dentist's behavior patterns