Prevalence and associated skills of Australian general practice registrars seeing children with functional bowel and bladder problems.

Only a small proportion of children with functional bowel and bladder problems were seen by registrars despite high prevalence in the community and amenability to management in the general practice setting (i.e. generally low morbidity and low complexity) versus need for specialists. Registrars appeared to be managing functional bowel and bladder problems according to evidence-based guidelines, but with relatively high levels of referral. Given the inequitable access to specialist care, paediatricians should support local general practice management of these problems. This might include (i) engaging with training programs to ensure appropriate education and (ii) liaising with individual registrars/practices to provide management advice for individual or example cases.