My GP has told me that 80% of their appointments don't need a GP appointment.

And actually for a lot of the 80% seeing the doctor and having the reassurance is the cure in itself. The visit was therefore worthwhile

Surely your statistic just means that those people were worried about some symptoms, but the doctor told them no treatment was necessary as either it would cure itself or medical intervention wouldn't help. But they needed to see the doctor for the latter to make that determination.

'What your GP is really saying is that they are able to fob off/gaslight 80% of their patients. A lot of people are having to live with pain and try to advocate for themselves whilst the GPS keep fobbing you off

Have you ever watched GPs behind closed doors? I can absolutely believe that 80% of people do not need seeing. I presume they only put the interesting cases on that and even so it's patient after patient saying they feel a bit off it.

I think some of it comes from the pressure from schools about attendance. Lots of schools do a home visit on day 3 of a child’s absence and want medical evidence. We’ve been through that.

Also, both parents now work in a lot of cases, so parents are under pressure to gets kids well and back to school asap as they need to be at work.

It’s shit!

What your GP is really saying is that they are able to fob off/gaslight 80% of their patients. A lot of people are having to live with pain and try to advocate for themselves whilst the GPS keep fobbing you off. I'm guessing the 20% of appointments that are not considered wasted are probably the children appointments because parents are relentless in advocating for their children and the GPs don't want to be blamed for anything that could go wrong with children. Therefore they pop out a prescription for antibiotics or refer them to a consultant.

I had multiple GP appointments for my child that were 'not needed'. Finally got the right person and they were admitted to hospital. GP told us they could have died, thankfully they got treatment and responded quickly. But those initial appointments of me being an 'over reactive mother' probably got packed into that 80% statistic, even though it was them not taking proper notice and I am so glad that I kept pushing.
I have lost faith in GP's, I have major hormone issues but they are so rude and dismissive towards me, telling me I am 'anxious' - its very clear that things are not right, but they keep telling me all is well and won't redo my bloods from two years ago. If i could go private I would every single time.

I don't think that 80% of people are talking bullshit. Maybe there are appointments that are unnecessary due to people worrying, maybe there are some that are unnecessary due to poor management from the NHS, but I think the suggestion that 80% of appointments are time wasters is ridiculous.

They will have some kind of guidelines to follow as 111 does when you ring them.

Well change

The system causes a lot of problems.

I made a query about a referral I know nothing about,to a hospital I do not want to go to,for a specialism I'm already under ina different trust answer you need to see the GP.

Last appointment not my regular GP wouldn't listen, gave me a fit not I didn't ask for or want and wrote to my specialist. Saw specialist nope not our remit go back to GP.

Yes but for every case of cancer there'll be thousands that do in fact have sore throats and indigestion. GPs dont have xray vision so they follow the age old path of if it doesn't settle then refer. They don't refer on first consultation usually unless there's an obvious problem.

We've all heard it, come back if it doesn't get better. GPs just hedge their bets generally.

Sometimes you need a doctor to say whether it’s ok or not, we simply don’t know as we’re not the experts.

I had a terrible cough so went to the doctors after a week of not being able to sleep, eat etc, only to be told that a cough can take a few weeks to go away. I was made to feel like I shouldn’t have wasted their time. I left it a few weeks and went back, still feeling awful and was told off by a different doctor for leaving it so long as I now had pneumonia! I wonder when the magical day was that I should have sought medical attention that wasn’t deemed too early or too late. 🤔

At another time, I went with some symptoms that they dismissed as nothing. I went back a month later still having the same symptoms and other symptoms which I’d had to take time off work for. Again dismissed. A few days later I became very poorly and was taken to hospital where I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

I have zero faith in seeing an GP on the NHS, especially ones who tell patients they shouldn’t be taking up appointments. We now see a private GP when necessary.

But they wouldn’t be referring everyone to an oncologist with heartburn. The doctor would ask suitable questions to the patient to see if there are other symptoms going on to see if it could be more sinister. Most won’t be but they might pick up on one cancer out of 100 heartburn patients who otherwise would find out too late they had cancer. That is the point of a GP

No, because that's a routine scan for a fairly common cancer and scanning everyone enables it to be caught at an early stage which works out much more cost effective that treating late stage breast cancer, not to mention the personal cost to sufferers and their families. It's completely different to referring everyone with heartburn to an oncologist.

This is an incredible dangerous attitude to triage. Totally unqualified staff deciding where to send people based on nothing…

Totally agree, I’ve long been saying this 28 days only script should only relate to issues where the illness is expected to clear up, or be temporary, and subsequently requires regular reviews.
i myself am on 2 meds for life, its a complete waste of everyone’s time, effort and sanity to be requesting a new prescription every month. Think of the time saved that could be better utilised for all involved…..GPs, admin staff, pharmacists etc…

I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition after being told "you're not ill, you've managed to put makeup on".

I was also told to look after my partner after a miscarriage because "he'll be upset too, it isn't just about you" seconds after being told the news.

I get they're busy but surely if you have no compassion left, do something else. I work in care, we're busy too but the second I don't feel compassion towards the people I care for, I'll do something else. I wouldn't abuse or mistreat them because "I'm busy".

I have found the nurses at my GP surgery in general a lot better than the GPs. One GP recently tried telling me my ds petechial non blanching rash was eczema!

I think sometimes it can be hard to access relevant treatment and people can be told blood results are normal when they’re not etc.

Sometimes a GP could say, you don’t meet the threshold for NHS treatment, but you might want to consider x or y. Instead, people are led to think things are a “normal” range, whether that’s a child needing to access a SALT or a person who needs an iron infusion.

People are often sent round the houses too - they see a pharmacist who tells them to see a GP, who then says the pharmacist should have treated them - with patient acting as the go-between. Others see a GP who doesn’t help, patients try again, eventually end up in a walk-in centre who say GP should have acted, then tell patient to go to A and E, who then treat them.
There doesn’t seem anywhere where misdiagnoses are noted either, which is dangerous.

So you would cancel mammograms? Afterall the vast majority of women who have them don’t have breast cancer…

I don't care what my GP thinks. If I think I need treatment or a referral, I'm coming in.
If it turns out to be nothing, then fantastic, but if I'm worried, I'm getting an appointment.

My mother was continually fobbed off with "it's just anxiety" until we had to rush her to A&S and it turned out to be a fatal brain tumour.

My son was fobbed off that it was just a bad virus, again we ended up in A&E where he was instantly admitted for emergency treatment.

I'm sure most people have examples like this, si as far as I'm concerned I will never hesitate to " bother" my doctor. It may well be trivial. Then again, it may not.

This. My local pharmacist is excellent but the rules are very tight on what he can do. Sadly the GP surgeries and 111 seem to say "ask your pharmacist" without understanding what is possible

Yeah I think it’s easy to look at this statistic and be flabbergasted about time wasting, of which there probably is some, and that needs ironing out. But eg I have had three GP appts this year - I can’t remember the reason for the first, but my last two would be classified as “unnecessary” - the first was a suspected UTI in my toddler (frequent urination, cried on the potty) and a dip test showed nothing. The second was an alarming bump in an intimate area. Turns out it was a graze that had become inflamed, but I wouldn’t have loved to have such an intimate inspection by a pharmacist (and probably not even possible) and even that GP needed a second opinion when I was there, and I was prescribed an antibiotic cream.

How would a person know though if they need some Gaviscon or have something more sinister?

Another example is I’ve had knee pain for four months after an injury while running. Why should I bother going when they’ll just tell me to lose weight (I am) and that’s it? What good is a health system that doesn’t help its patients.

It depends on where you live. We lived in Lincolnshire and had to request repeats every 28 days (in late 60’s and on BP meds) but moved to Greater Manchester last year and now have the luxury of 3 month repeats.
I agree that monthly is an utter waste of GP time.