In most cases, GPs cannot accurately diagnose patients who have developed pneumonia, a new study has found.

According to Dutch scientists, most GPs are expected to diagnose pneumonia based on a patient's symptoms and their medical history, as use of a chest X-ray is usually not available to them. However until now, it was unclear how accurate this type of diagnosis was.

The scientists emphasised that when it comes to pneumonia, an accurate diagnosis is essential. For example, some of the main symptoms of the illness include an acute cough and shortness of breath. Many people with these symptoms are diagnosed with acute bronchitis and the treatment for both conditions is very different.

Pneumonia usually requires antibiotics, while acute bronchitis does not.

In order to see how accurate the GP's method was, the team studied almost 3,000 patients in 12 European countries. All of the patients had an acute cough and in each case, the GP was asked to make a diagnosis based on their analysis of the symptoms and patient history.

Each patient then received a chest X-ray from another doctor.

Among the participants, 140 patients were found to have pneumonia following a chest X-ray. However among these, just over one in four had been diagnosed with pneumonia by their GPs.

On the other hand, just 1% of people were incorrectly told they had pneumonia.

As a result, the scientists believe that GPs are able to accurately pinpoint patients who do not have pneumonia, however in most cases, they are unable to pick out the patients who do have the illness.

"A majority of the pneumonia cases in this study were not picked up by an initial assessment alone. Tests that could support a doctor's ability to detect or exclude pneumonia are urgently needed. We should also remember that GPs tell patients to revisit them if symptoms get worse or persist, as a ‘safety net' for initially missed cases," the team said.

Details of these findings are published in the European Respiratory Journal.