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

No, not any more. We have an ageing population, and some people may have 4 or 5 co-morbid chronic conditions. Hospitals are putting more and more management of their patients, back onto GPs without asking them, if they have the capacity to do it.

The GP in my family complains that he may have a surgery with too many complex patients, who can’t be dealt with properly in the standard 10 minute slot!

For instance, DH has had two stents put in. The cardiac unit told him on discharge, if he had any problems to go to his GP. Does a GP necessarily have the training to know all the things that can wrong after a stent? DH usually feels really ill for several weeks after. Our GPs don’t know why. We know in Poland, they keep patients in hospital for a week after a stent. Here, it’s a few hours!

There used to be two wonderful walk in clinics near me in South Manchester. I used to take my father regularly for minor injuries which they were able to patch up if it wasn’t an urgent case for A and E.
if they reopened some of these it surely would take the pressure off the Drs and A and E.

We are in our late 60s and had never come across scarlet fever ourselves - we just heard our parents say “Little Fred Blogs got it…”

I know of a child, who got it in the last year!

My gp insists I go in when I could go to the pharmacy. Covid, flu jabs, hrt I could get a prescription for 12 months but they insist a blood pressure check every 3 months. I've never had a problem with blood pressure. It's because the Gp wants paying for doing them not the pharmacy. So it's a 2 way street.

It could be seen as 'boring' - on the other hand, I'd say the pastoral care aspect of it would be what might be enjoyable? And there's space for GPs to do an enormous amount of good just by listening; it seems a slightly odd complaint that people are bringing them the wrong sort of problems.

@blueandwhiteporcelainmy kid caught scarlet fever at nursery - I thought it wasn’t really around much too, just something you saw in old movies, but it’s not rare. Some viruses e.g. chickenpox, covid, rsv can make you more susceptible.

Am sorry you had to leave. Can't imagine how difficult that is because I am convinced most GPs go into it wanting to help (not for weekends as some allege here. Tut tut). And I definitely don't agree with GP bashing (or teacher bashing). I think most of us don't appreciate how hard public services personnel work under very difficult circumstances, underfunded services, increasing needs, and increasingly frazzled clients.
I still feel the GP saying this is not helpful. I rarely go to GP. I look at me and am a black immigrant woman who hasn't had the best of experience and have read of unequal treatment of black women in healthcare. So I often don't expect the kind of support or experience I would love (although to be fair most of my experience with my GPs have been positive!)
My solution? I currently self medicate for insomnia, tinea pityriasis and occasionally haemorrhoids (Beyond of the shelf suppositories to a stronger, subscription one). Am about to start a stronger ferrous sulfate and researching how to addess my perimenopause as my GP was disinterested and just threw the ball back in my court. I shouldn't have to self medicate on any of these. But I do because I have learnt that the system is unlikely to support me. Am sure GPs like the one op went to would be relieved. But most GPs would probably be alarmed and some might even prefer to see me rather than reduce "unnecessary " appointments through thousands of self medicating people.
It's all very difficult

Especially as the family doctor aspect has disappeared.

Exactly, it's what the job is.

Because they can then make more money from prescription fees 🙃

@Hiptothisjive next time show your GP this and ask them if they were one of these GPs that dismissed this lady as one of the 80%

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly0428jjpeo.amp

I was dismissed so many times when I felt lump in my tummy. In both the Uk and an EU country. I was even told it was poo which left me feeling well if am pooping regularly but still have a lump of poo surely that's not normal. I would wear 2 night max pads during periods, changed frequently and still soak through. Was anxious every time I stood up during my periods.
Finally went to a doc in my country (one of the top 4 poorest countries in the world) and was diagnosed with fibroids. I eventually had a private laparoscopic embolisation in London. The imaging before that showed over 20 fibroid. The surgeon said he stopped counting at some point. And mine is not the worst case scenario as per the story above.

How are we supposed to triage ourselves?

She should have specialised in something interesting. Gp work will always be boring lifestyle issues and sicknotes. I think some are drawn to it for the easy working hours, no weekends or nights like hospitals but to do all that training and spend days looking at very minor ailments must be terrible.

Because you PAY to see your dentist, you PAY for glasses at the optician, and you may not have noticed but NHS dentists are now like hen's teeth if you'll excuse the pun and most people can't even get a check-up at all anyway.

Only children get free dental check ups and it takes MONTHS and sometimes years to find an NHS dentist.

It's every five years, and you're supposed to be contacted about it.

NHS Health Check - NHS https://share.google/ZiaUkyYGgu4Skswnq

I’ve got a good friend who’s a GP and so often feels frustrated that the people coming to see her often need to improve diet, exercise etc. I do get her point, not that I went to the doctor but I had some plantar fasciitis and knee trouble that resolved when I lost a stone.

Dentists and opticians manage it, one six monthly, the other annually or bi-annually.

You're entitled to one every three years I think? Not that they'd encourage that, or advertise it.

I did have a health check when I was 40, but nothing at 50 which I think is odd. I don’t think I’ve seen a GP for 10 years at least now

I think the point about opticians is a pedantic one about the ones doing the actual tests and prescribing and referring to GPs are the optometrists, not the opticians. But everyone says I'm going to the opticians, and the shop signs usually say opticians. You're probably only going to talk about optometrists if you're getting into a detailed discussion about what you did there and problems it showed.

My opticians is part of PEARS - GPs refer you there for eye checks, because the optometrists there have some kit (and presumably related skills) that other opticians in town don't have. If it's something serious, you then get a hospital referral. Not sure about PEARS, but usually highstreet opticians and audiologists can only write to your GP to ask them to refer you, which seems an unnecessary step.

I went to have my ears microsuctioned at Specsavers, during which we all had a good look at my ear canal on the screen, although I couldn't tell you much about what was going on. They said (and it was they, as they asked for the duty senior audiologist to come and look too, a trained audilogist,) that looks like infection, you need a referral to ENT. GP ignored the letter until I was there for something else a few months later, and asked what's happening. GP agreed it was impacting my hearing - but they only had a handheld otoscope to look, not the choice of kit at Specsavers. Still i got a referral to ENT, which came round quite quickly, and it was ultimately sorted with topical antibiotic drops. But it was an unnecessarily long path to get there, which for me was mildly inconvenient- couldn't hear as well, but for others could have more serious consequences.

If trained optometrists and audiologists could refer directly, it would make more sense, but at the very least, if either the audiologist o'r my GP had said, your GP will also need to see the ear before forwarding on the referral, that would have also helped. I mean, they send me enough messages about flu jab and upcoming appointments, so why not a message to say, we got a letter, please make an appointment.

The UK has a population of 70 million. If each of them had a 6 monthly checkup that 140 million extra appointments each year. Even if we make a very conservative estimate that a GP appt costs £20, that's £2.8 billion so you can have your check-up. Who is paying for that?!

Idk, but when we were children, our parents grew up before antibiotics and the NHS. Their parents had to pay for doctors and knew to try first home remedies like honey and lemon for sore throats, colds, etc or a warm flannel for a stye. Our parents only took us to the doctors, if after all that, they were still worried or knew it was something serious. They’d seen scarlet fever, polio, etc in people they knew; or people die from blood poisoning from a scratch in the garden, etc before antibiotics.

My children have never seen measles, scarlet fever, etc.

We grew up with that knowledge of home remedies, and the understanding for instance, that colds make you feel ill, but you get better in a few days. Somehow some of that knowledge has been lost in younger generations; and as the NHS is free at the point of care, why not get a GP to check it out?

Also, from what I hear, people come here from other countries and expect the same health system here as they had at home - like they can go in a shop to buy antibiotics for a cold; or people go straight to hospital clinics, because they aren’t used to a GP system?

IMO, care for minor illnesses, including in children under five should be taught in schools in PHSE.

That is literally the job of an e-consult. They are read by an experienced nurse and directed accordingly.

The receptionist isn’t intended to make medical decisions. They are there to book things - like urgent appointments. The only questions they are ask are to determine idle the appointment is actually urgent.

When I was at university I had a skin issue that just wouldn't go and I spoke to several GPs. I was then told they had a skin specialist within the surgery who could see me

Our surgery triage almost everyone by phone before they provide a face to face appointment. You submit an e-consult, they phone you and then decide if they actually need to see you.

You can still see them on the day if this urgent but then you have to do the ridiculous 8am calling thing.

Problem is people don’t realise this is actually a good system to make sure people are using the GP’s time effectively and everyone just complains they can’t get an appointment when they phone up at 8am for something that isn’t urgent (like a menopause assesment or the symptom they have had for 3 weeks and suddenly decide it needs looking at within 24 hours even though they have managed perfectly well for the last 3 weeks).

This is exactly it.

I have a set of things I suspect are one thing, but have potential to be much worse.
I've tried with some of them to get a GP appointment and the best I've had is a text, assuming it's the mild side suggestion something like using otc painkillers.

I could have heart problems, tia, a blood clot in my leg and a few other things on that level. The symptoms are there which could point to those -I know enough to know these would be reasonable conclusions from the symptoms I supplied to the GP.
In not one of those cases has the GP even bothered to phone me. Now as I said I know enough to suspect these aren't those, but the GP doesn't know that.
If I'm in that situation, then I'm sure there are others in that situation too. And for some of those it will be the more serious illnesses.