Two medical magazines reported that Ms Hewitt said some Muslim women feared raising sensitive issues with their GP in case it got back to their families. She told Pulse magazine: "I have had Muslim women give me chapter and verse on very distressing breaches of confidentiality by Muslim GPs. "Some women patients feel they cannot trust their own GP, who knows the patient's extended families. If they go and talk to him about a very difficult situation concerning domestic violence or sexual health problems they fear that he will share that with other members of the community. They are very close-knit communities."One woman who took part in the survey of more than 200 Muslim women said: "When I was younger - I grew up in Essex, a mixed community - there were only a few GPs the young women would go to - because GPs in the community felt able to pass information about your sexuality to your parents."
Dr Reesat Drabu, a GP in Eastleigh, Hampshire and chair of the Muslim Council of Britain's social and family affairs committee said there were no figures to back up Ms Hewitt's comments. "As a Muslim doctor I find it very offensive that she raises the issue that we are any less capable of adhering to good practice."
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