Table 3. Barriers and facilitators in management of FI in primary care.

Barriers to screening and treating patients with FI	n (%)
Insufficient skills	703 (56.1)
FI not common or significant enough to justify enquiring with patient	95 (7.6)
Concerns that patient may not be receptive to screening or intervention	378 (30.1)
Insufficient time to screen or provide intervention	150 (12.0)
Insufficient support from specialists	178 (14.2)
Wish to avoid further referrals of patients with FI in the future	38 (3.0)
Perception that FI has no effective treatment, so screening is futile	83 (6.6)
Perception that FI is not the most important issue during the consultation	115 (9.2)
Lack of interest in screening or treating FI	70 (5.6)
GP’s embarrassment to ask patients about any bowel leakage	50 (4.0)
Avoidance of patient’s embarrassment if probed about bowel leakage problems	113 (9.0)
Perception that FI should only be treated by specialists in the field	76 (6.1)
Facilitators to screening and treating patients with FI
Knowing exactly who to refer to	1071 (84.6)
Knowing exactly where to refer to	938 (74.1)
Easier referral pathway	583 (46.1)
More resources to assist	677 (53.5)
Having effective treatments available	567 (44.8)
Belief among GPs that screening and intervention are important	590 (46.6)
Having more detailed communication from specialists after referral	609 (48.1)
Having less detailed communication from specialists after referral	75 (5.9)
Access to up-to-date management guidelines and recommendations	898 (70.9)
Further training to allow GP to be more comfortable talking to patients about FI	570 (45.0)
Further training to allow GP to be more knowledgeable treating FI	860 (67.9)
No facilitators identified	42 (3.3)

Totals for individual items may not equal 1285 owing to missing data. FI = faecal incontinence.