GP appointments - is this widespread or maybe I am being sensitive?!

[Alpa2]

I’ve NC but regular poster. Whenever I’ve called my GP over the last few years, which has been rare maybe once or twice a year, I come off the phone almost shaking, a few times in tears. This is usually from speaking with the receptionist but sometimes the GP when they’re a locum. It’s either very abrupt rude and invasive questions from the receptionist (ie once telling me that my reaction to some tablet wasn’t a gp issue ). Or it’s the actual GP sounding like they couldn’t give a fuck and just find you a pain. I don’t even call unless it’s urgent or needed, I don’t books appointments unnecessarily.

This treatment has caused me to go privately for GP consultations (luckily I get that through work but they can’t deal with anything ongoing due to the nature of the insurance policy, just one off things). I’ve also gone direct to a consultant in the past simply to avoid having to call up the gp surgery and then even if I get through and have an appointment, have to feel like I’m fighting for my right to be seen or referred. Again, I really have not called up about anything and everything so I can’t see it being a case of them thinking I’m a problem patient and mostly I speak to locums so always seems to be a new GP there.

I’m really fed up of it and just wanted to rant really. I had to call them on Tuesday and it was just awful again, when I was allowed to book it in after loads of questioning, I was then speaking to another apparently new GP (to me at least) who got my name wrong (it’s a basic English name) and didn’t ask me to confirm my address and just said she only had 10 minutes before I had even spoken!

I’m not a little princess and I truly understand the pressures, especially now, and I’ve had some wonderful doctors (usually in hospital settings) treat me and family/friends in the past.... but I have begun to feel aggrieved that I am paying huge amounts in tax to find something where I frankly feel like I get treated like shit. It’s a sad state of affairs that it takes 200 quid to have an appointment with a doctor who will provide you with care where you feel at ease and entitled to book an appointment.

Just sad about it really and makes me feel like sometimes people are just terrible unless there’s a financial incentive. Am I being dramatic after a horrible call or is this a widespread feeling?

@WhatKatyDidNxt it’s awful isn’t it! My brother is a doctor in a hospital and says he despairs if GPs. I’m sure there are some brilliant ones and I’m just yet to meet one.

It’s shocking that receptionists are allowed to speak to the public like they do. If you had to pay directly for these services rather than in tax, I think most would be out of a job and suddenly there would be a rather more pleasant attitude front of house.

@RedskyAtnight good point and I think there is definitely an element of that for sure. But I have to say...feeling heard and re assured is really the basic expectation in medical care, surely.

But yes, you’re right that I am being sensitive to it and I think a poster above was right that a lot is briskness that I just don’t take well and find rude.

@ThatsnotMyNameAgain I’m sorry, that’s very dismissive and not at all what you expect is it. Is there anywhere you can move to in the city? I know some city GPs don’t care where you live if you work in the area.

I'm genuinely appalled at the terrible treatment my elderly mother has had from her GP surgery.

I identify with all your issues, rudeness, inaccessibility, mistakes...

Our GPs and receptionists are all brilliant. Yes, it's a bit of a hassle getting through at the moment because of the recorded covid message etc, and even before that you quite often had to keep trying to get through, but they've never been anything but polite, helpful and professional. I try not to bother them unnecessarily and have never been made to feel uncomfortable.

This was how I have found almost all GPs. I had one a while back who was brilliant, but she ran her practice in a totally old school way - was the only GP there, did home visits, had a skeleton in her consulting room! We moved away and it’s been back to a stream of desperately burnt out GPS and locums who take their youth and enthusiasm with them when they move to a new setting. I am always amazed when I hear about people who are referred for anything at all via GPs. I asked to have an irregular mole checked once (family history of melanoma) and my GP made a really big deal of how difficult it would be to refer me, what an elaborate process it was to have the mole scanned, couldn’t I just wait and see if it looked any different in a year? I gave up trying to talk to him about my joint pain - I just cane co-codamol and hope for the best. I don’t understand how anyone ever gets hip replacements or anything like that - my 76-year-old aunt can hardly walk anymore and keeps being told it’s just a part of getting older and she’ll have to suck it up. There are good GPs out there but they are few and far between and working in a hopelessly broken and underfunded system.

I don’t share your experience at all. The receptionists are very helpful and the doctors always patient, kind and knowledgeable

this ^

I also get annoyed with people who aren't prepared to give some basic information to trained staff to help them triage calls and direct the Doctors' time the best way they can. GP surgeries are under a great deal of pressure and the management of each practice does its best to give the best access they can via some sort of triage, rather than using GP appts when one isn't needed.

I come off the phone almost shaking, a few times in tears.

I have to say though, this ^ does not sound like a normal reaction. Maybe once, if you were in extreme pain due to the condition you were phoning about, but for this to happen several times, is somewhat strange.

Nor does the fact that you have begun to feel aggrieved that I am paying huge amounts in tax really help you gain any empathy from me. The founding principle of the NHS is that it is free at the point of delivery to all, regardless of their means. You seem to be implying that there ought to be some link between the service offered and the amount of tax you pay, when that just isn't how the NHS works. .

Just sad about it really and makes me feel like sometimes people are just terrible unless there’s a financial incentive. Am I being dramatic after a horrible call or is this a widespread feeling?

Definitely not widespread amongst anyone I know.
We all know there are massive issues with the NHS: understaffing; being expected to pick up all the issues arising from complete lack of mental health funding in the country; being expected to pick up the issue from massivie underfunding of social care in the country; being expected to pick up the fall out from underfunded elderly care in the country; but I have never come across an individual HCP who would treat anyone any differently because the person were wealthy. That is an awful allegation.

Oh, and I don't work for the NHS in any way, I am just an ordinary person who is very grateful for the NHS.

That sounds awful
My Surgery is one of the lovely old fashioned places , where you just turn up in surgery hours , tell the receptionist your name and which Dr you want to see

Sit down , wait , see GP
Sit and wait , then collect the tablets / medicine from the pharmacy
Go home
Now ,
Go in , see receptionist as above
Take number and sit in your car in car park
Til Dr comes out of side door with comedy large number and then go in and get seen

Definitely try moving surgery to see if another one is any better. I moved last year out of frustration with the GPs at my old one (one told me “there’s a medicine called paracetamol you could try” when I presented with back pain - no shit, and who hasn’t heard of paracetamol? ) and my new one is a lot better, they have more appointments available so the receptionists don’t have to do as much gatekeeping and the GPs take me seriously!

You need to complain through all channels available. They are not up to the job x

@BackforGood yes funnily enough I do expect a particular standard of service when I pay my tax I’m not suggesting that the service to me should be different or better because I may pay more in tax. I’m saying the service should be a proper standard. The NHS is free to small minority - I have no issue with that and they should have the same standard of care I or anyone else should have, in my view (which isn’t shared by everyone, FYI). But don’t suggest that it is free to all - it is not free, most people pay for it every month. What an odd way to interrupt my post.

Secondly there could be all manner of reasons why someone doesn’t want to share their personal medical information with a receptionist. I wouldn’t talk about my dog’s illness to the booking assistant at pets at home.

Always a different doc here which isn't usually a problem until it was a review for Dd migraines in which case we had to spend a lot of time going over what was discussed at the first appointment.
Reception staff are excellent though can't fault them at all.

I felt like this. I just felt like a nuisance. We moved to a different country and I love the health care system here. Even though the locals complain! I actually feel cared for by my doctor. My health has improved as a result of this.

It’s much easier to get repeat prescriptions, blood work, everything.

I think you need to be clear and concise about why you are phoning. Briefly explain your condition and what your expectations are, be pleasant and polite and keep it simple. And then listen to their response.

I can only guess your expectations are not being met, but are they in fact reasonable expectations- and are your articulating them clearly enough?
Some health conditions are not easy/possible to resolve, and not all are appropriate for referral. The NHS has limited resources and primary care providers work within guidelines.

I’m not suggesting that the service to me should be different or better because I may pay more in tax

so why mention it ?

But don’t suggest that it is free to all - it is not free, most people pay for it every month.

I didn't. I specifically said 'free at the point of delivery'.

My surgery now is excellent. However, i was previously with a different surgery (had to change when I moved house) and they were awful! The receptionists had a reputation for being rude and nosy and have treated my chronically ill parents appallingly. I do think that surgeries have a culture (like most workplaces) so if the culture at your surgery is to treat patients that way, it becomes the norm and most staff will do it - consciously or unconsciously.

Happily, I haven’t had the experience you’ve had OP. A relative of mine worked in a gp’s surgery and the it was the doctors who instructed the receptionists to get the medical details from the patient, the receptionists didn’t do it if their bat...they hated asking because of the abuse and rudeness of the patients.

@BackforGood I mentioned it because I am aggrieved to be paying tax full stop for a service that is so bad. I’m not sure why that is a problematic statement, really. Are you happy to pay tax for services that you can’t access or where you are treated badly in order to access them? If so, why?

If you acknowledge that it is free at the point of delivery- I’m not sure what point you are making, exactly... does it being free at the point of delivery matter in the context of my post?

@DailyFailstinks yes I think that must be true. There’s a very aggressive ‘patient always in the wrong’ attitude. @Nicolastuffedone yes I guess that must be the case. I can understand doctors wanting to know beforehand but when someone is so aggressive on the phone to you it hardly makes you want to divulge personal info.

DP phoned for an appointment back in the first lockdown, he was 'triaged' by the receptionist, she told him the fact that he was as yellow as Homer Simpson and not in pain was not a medical emergency. Our whole journey since he turned yellow (and was subsequently diagnosed with bile duct cancer) has shaken my faith in the GP system to the very core, even when his bloods came back and showed his bilirubin was at a dangerously high level his GP did nothing other than refer him for a routine ultrasound. Even A&E turned DP away. There are plenty here who will tell me I am wrong but I have no faith in the NHS any more.

My GPs have always been great with me - a bit slow in the past to diagnose something but fine to me. The old GP though has been consistently awful to my DD, she has some kind of gastric issue and they just don't listen - or advise eating more fibre even when she tells them it still existed when living in a remote village in Asia and eating a vegetarian diet (100% Organic, lots of vegetables, very little dairy).
But If I got such rudeness I would change surgery.

So far I'm very impressed with my new surgery, they even see people in person, my old one had been 100% triage by phone before any face to face contact.

And I've had 100% fabulous service from the NHS including surgery on Christmas Eve, and being visited by a consultant on Christmas day.

Are you happy to pay tax for services that you can’t access or where you are treated badly in order to access them? If so, why?

Because that's how taxation works. We all pay in, for the good of 'society'. I could argue I've never actually needed the services of the Fire Brigade, but I'm still happy to contribute my little bit. Or the Youth Offenders system, or the courts, or the prisons, or the probation service. I'm fortunate enough never to have been in a position to have needed support from social services, or all kinds or services that our taxes provide. I'm sure there are people out there who have never used a library or a state school place or claimed tax credits. That is the whole way that taxes work. We all pay in, and then - in theory - elect the Government that we think will make best use of them. Yes, I know, that's a whole other thread . We don't say "I don't think the libraries are run in a way that suits me, so I'm withholding my bit of tax that pays for those". that's not how a tax system works.
If you are paying 'huge amounts' then that is because you are earning 'huge amounts' - perhaps you should reflect upon that?

BackforGood those are examples of services you contribute towards but don't need to use, not services you pay for and would like to use but find them unsuitable.

@BackforGood as @LeonardBobby has said, you’ve rather missed the point. Maybe reflect on that.

No, what I am saying is all taxpayers pay into a pot.
Then the money in that pot is used for 100s of different services.
You aren't an individual 'buying' a service, in the same way as if you bought a meal in a restaurant that wasn't great, or an electrical item that didn't work, where the contract is between you, as an individual and the business owner.

Of course no-one should come off a phone call with anyone so upset that they start to cry, but there is still no connection between the amount of tax you pay and how 'satisfied' with the interaction you are. The practice shouldn't be being rude to anybody. But, if this has been over a few years with both the Receptionist and different doctors each time, it seems there is either a real endemic issue with the whole practice, or, potentially, your perception. None of us can know which.