I’m so gonna get flamed!!
I find it very interesting the hcps on this thread stating that uncomfortable truths need to be faced, because imo ONE of those uncomfortable truths is the fact that hcps aren’t always blameless in how things are being run either.
Right from people who willingly accept cheap training in this country to gain them hcp qualifications which they then almost immediately use to allow them to emigrate to countries where they will use those skills and knowledge to get better paid jobs, now I expect I will be told that’s their choice - which would be fair enough IF their training was paid in full by them.
Then there’s hcps who don’t treat patients well, yes they may be in their minority but that minority in my (and from reading MANY posts of similar experiences here, other sites, in press etc) experience is sadly increasing. I don’t know why, some will say it’s because pay and conditions for hcps are poor but they always have been especially for nurses yet they never used to take it out on the patients the way they do seem to now.
I’m an ex hcp myself and I trained and worked in the nhs the last time the tories were trying to fuck it up and I do know the stresses hcps can be under and also appreciate because I’m being told by friends/ex colleagues that it’s even worse now BUT those same friends and ex colleagues are also telling me that;
Recruitment processes are fucked up, there’s too much emphasis on academic ability and not enough on qualities of compassion, empathy and understanding. A lot of trainee nurses I’m being told are refusing to do what they consider “menial” tasks because they think they’re above doing eg obs, cleaning bedpans, washing patients...
Middle managers/mentors are not being supported in terms of educating trainees as to how they treat patients so they’re learning/embedding bad habits.
Newly qualified hcps are expecting to be able to set their own shifts according to their own personal needs (and I’m not talking things like childcare but things like ‘I’m not working weekends I want to still have a social life’, have days off pretty much on a whim, pick and choose which tasks they’ll do.
As a patient and from some research too, some of which is finally reaching the MSM there are issues around medical misogyny and patients not being listened to.
One way I honestly believe would free up a LOT of gp appointments is if gps listened to patients more effectively and didn’t dismiss them.
I have asked on mn on several occasions and not one hcp has ever responded regarding my own experience of having classic symptoms of endo for 14 years and being repeatedly dismissed and not once being referred to gynae. I was prescribed medication to treat certain symptoms which only masked the condition. I would have needed a hell of a lot fewer gp appointments and in all likelihood not needed several surgeries etc if I’d been referred, dx and treated far earlier.
I posted a thread on medical misogyny last year around this time, responses from hcps were conspicuous by their absence! There were many examples of mners and their loved ones going to gps REPEATEDLY with the same symptoms and being REPEATEDLY dismissed or at most being prescribed medication to mask symptoms but not actually getting a dx often until they ended up in hospital at a&e because the condition itself or other conditions caused by it reached crisis stage. Often the treatment for the correct dx was something relatively simple. I somewhat expected examples relating to gynae/obstetrics what I was shocked by were how many examples there were relating to conditions suffered by both sexes. But posters were saying men they knew who had presented to gps with similar symptoms etc were not dismissed but tested/referred, dx and appropriately treated. 2 of the main conditions that kept coming up were gall bladder disease and thyroid disease which seem to be woefully under dx and treated in women.
One hcp on this thread has said about patients going to the gp repeatedly for the same condition - well maybe the gp should be considering the patient isn’t getting the correct treatment or it’s been misdiagnosed and needs more thorough investigation and the RIGHT treatment.
If patients were listened to, tested/referred/dx and treated within say the first 3 times of reporting the SAME symptoms at gp level then they wouldn’t NEED to be using up many gp appointments trying to get the help they need.
IMO there are 3 key issues that need addressed to improve the nhs:
1 funding - yes I know it’s not as simple as “throw money at it” but NOT funding it is stupid too, no service runs on fresh air!
2 better recruitment criteria and training for hcps, better practice by hcps The woeful lack of training & understanding regarding women’s health and mental health (not only within mh but it’s impact on physical health too), teaching hcps better listening skills and I’m sure there’s more
3 better education for general public of what hcp for what type of ailment
I have been very vocal in supporting the use of pharmacists, nurse practitioners etc. I’m also quite vocal on self care for minor ailments (we seem to have massively lost that knowledge between my generation and not quite the next generation but the one in between kind of? I was raised by parents who were very keen on and confident in using self care)
Unless there are complicating factors people really don’t need a gp appointment for the vast majority of minor ailments. Most can be treated with self care and if not then ask a pharmacist and if that’s not enough then nurse practitioner. Things like colds & flu, sore throats, headaches, sprains and strains, small cuts, scrapes and bruises, minor allergies, minor skin rashes can be treated with basic common sense approaches.
We even see threads on here mners complaining they can’t get a gp appointment then either in op or more commonly later in thread it becomes apparent that all that’s wrong with them is bloody sniffles anyway! Go to bed, with plenty of tissues, drink plenty, dose up on lemsip etc if necessary and have a bit of a pity party by all means but you don’t need to see a gp for that!!
It’ll never run perfectly but then no health service does, but it can run a lot better than it is now.