I’m a GP

Well this thread is rather concerning!

@WutheringBites my local private GP practice does really well, I'd try getting a job in one of those if you can.

It's ridiculous. The whole state of the NHS is.

Woah little bit scary reading this.

Yes, my son’s really bright and easily has grades for medicine. He wanted to do it for ages but I’m glad he went off it. A lot of slog for a long time for not much reward as far as I can see.

Is there any locum work as an interim solution?

Around £50 per hour which is about double aparamedic (understandably so for the training, but not necessarily for patient outcomes or experience for many conditions or end of life stuff)

Sadly I do think some of this at least is down to patients. Before Google, we made a lot of uneducated assumption "I've got a fever, I'll go to bed for the weekend". (Now of course it would have cost many people their lives) But on the flip side: we all Google everything. We're all pretty much obsessed with the minute details of what our bodies are doing.

Things we go to the GP for that once wouldn't have been considered:

• birth control

There's many more .

It's not a bad thing at all that we now attend with these above complaints. However, it will naturally add considerable to numbers attending.

Not to mention new initiatives such as screening and MOTs /health check ups and chronic disease tick box reviews. They're all great ideas but there's no resources, so they end up pointless tick box exercises carried out by a HCA. There's no care in it or genuine check up on your symptoms. Just bp and weight and off you pop

Whole system is broken to be honest.

@zazazooms how much do you think a GP earns per hour?

@Portakalkedi no GP works 9-5. Some do earn £100k , but they will be working 60+ hours per week. I’m winding down to retirement so I only work 35 hours a week, and I earn £48.

A sad situation, OP, but if GPS are indeed earning £100k for working 9-5, then clearly it's understandable that the NHS prefers to appoint more nurse practitioners etc, who can take a lot of the workload (not saying it's right though) at a much lower cost. I can't believe you wouldn't find work in private practice though as that sector is growing all the time.

This is the same experience in my surgery. GPs are very expensive. The deal about q0 years ago gave them too much money for too little work.
The services have been broken down in out practice into cheaper more specialist teams who dare I say are often have a better bedside manner and better outcomes than some of the GPs.

@MeganM3 I think you’re misunderstanding the situation. There aren’t as many GPs working as there used to be, because the funding isn’t there for them. Instead funding is given for paramedics and prescribing nurses, because per appointment they’re cheaper. Every working GP works flat out, from the minute they arrive at work to the minute they leave, usually about 12-14 hours later. Every appointment they have is filled. But there aren’t enough GP appointments, because the money isn’t there to pay for them.

I agree. I work in a specialized field as an AHP and without being arrogant - I'm pretty good 👍. BUT, I never make the fatal mistake of thinking for one second that I have the depth and breadth of knowledge of a qualified doctor specialised in the same field as me. It's that depth and breath that truly seperates us. I've been encouraged to take on even more roles that breach the boundary of my code of conduct and will soon say this (no matter how good I am ) .

The trouble with some people in similar jobs to me is they're "badge/title" hungry and it's very very easy to start letting ego override. But that won't protect patients and there will be many a non medical practitioner that will fall fowl of this.

Why do surgeries make it so hard for people
to get a GP appointment. Maybe they need fewer GPs because everyone’s so familiar with being unable to get an appointment that they don’t even bother trying anymore.

I’m a GP close to retirement, and the increasing use of nurses and paramedics to do the work of GPs terrifies me. I’m not diminishing nurses/paramedics, and they do a wonderful job with minor illnesses, and particular topics they do additional training in (eg diabetes, asthma), but their training is totally different to the training doctors receive. They don’t have the depth and breadth of knowledge that doctors have, and simply aren’t able to draw up the same list of diagnostic possibilities when faced with a set of symptoms. A patient of ours has just died as a result of a prescribing nurse being out of her depth.

It’s a ticking time bomb .

I read posts like this and feel so fucking depressed. Its nigh on impossible to get to see a GP at my surgery now, as a pp said you can only ring at 8am, be on hold for about 20 mins only to be told there's no appointments left, ring again tomorrow. I would love to know who it is managing to actually access primary healthcare. :-(

Our local surgeries have employed a lot of paramedic practitioners. They send them on house calls but they don’t have the depth and breadth of knowledge to be able to assess patients well enough so they send the majority to A&E for things like asymptomatic hypertension. Our A&E is drowning in primary care work but meanwhile GPs can’t get jobs. It’s an absolute joke.

Ask your university for suggestions

Can you teach ?

I've seen lots of medical jobs on
www.gov.uk
Find a job

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳
how awful

Can you work away somewhere else in the UK & travel home at weekends ?
Car, train, fly

Work PT ?

What about volunteer with the Mercy boat or other medical teams abroad ?

I’d look into this op, my tiny town has two private gps and always are busy, plus I’ve used telephone appts with private gps.

It’s impossible to get an appointment at my GP practice. Everyone has to call at 8am, whether you need a routine appointment or something more urgent. It’s usual that once you get through you are 34th or more in the call queue. Then, you get a message saying all the appointments have gone.

When I became breathless, I tried to get an appointment but couldn’t. I called 111, who referred me back to my GP. In desperation, I drove to the practice and asked the receptionist for an appointment and explained why. She said someone would call me.

Eventually at 3.30pm a practice nurse called me. When I told her my problem, she said to go straight to A & E. I’d waited seven and a half hours for that advice!

I was subsequently admitted with multiple blood clots in both lungs.

I’m very upset to read that you can’t get a job. We need more GPs to provide a decent service.

@WutheringBites have you tried registering with private health care providers? My health care plan gives me access to GP appointments whenever I need one. I’m also a therapist registered with BUPA, as apart from self employment and EAP work, counselling jobs are few and far between.

Sorry to hear this.

Is there no locumming jobs ? Not that I know that much about the system but I assumed that locums were always in demand to fill gaps .

I'm sorry to hear of this.

Congratulations on an extremely challenging qualification to obtain.

I'm an allied HCP. I'd rather not say which. But Drs are being eroded. Advanced practitioners (nurses, paramedics) are well paid (band 8) so say £50-60k for arguments sake. But a GP is (correct me if I'm wrong ) around £100,000 (so a saving of half !) so they'll eventually probably run a practice on all ANPs with one token GP at the helm. The hospital is going the same way. Healthcare assistants are becoming more and more advanced in their skills (replacing nurses ) and nurses are now taking on far more advanced and specialised roles more akin.to drs. It's a clever way of keeping wages down.

I feel for you. You shouldn't be in this position. I don't have any useful advice I'm afraid. Drs are some of the most kind hearted and genuinely wonderful people I've met in my career. You deserve to reap the rewards of your hard work. I hope you do.