Hi all- bit of lurker on these threads but enjoy reading the craic!
Just wanted to post to those who are struggling with GP appointments- my lovely DH is a GP and is completely exhausted and overworked at the moment, even more so than usual. They are a doctor down one day a week at the moment because they have to contribute someone to the central vaccine clinics, and as a result the on call rota is such that he is on call for part of every day, which means he has to do all the telephone consultations in addition to doing a full morning or afternoon of appointments. He usually sees/ calls about 40 people a day even without an on call and he is really struggling to keep on top of everything.
Plus the COVID safety measures mean he has to wipe down surfaces in his room after every patient he sees, wear a new plastic pinny (which he hates!) and gloves every time and wear a mask every time he leaves his room or a colleague or patient comes in to speak to him. So that all takes up extra time.
And on top of all that he is managing patients with complex conditions in the community, when they should be being seen by hospital doctors, because the hospital service has obviously reduced due to the pandemic- he has to have half an hour argument with a consultant or whoever every time he tries to refer someone at the moment, which takes up a lot of time considering he’s only allocated 10 minutes for each patient contact. Plus all the multiple phone calls when he tries to call a patient back because they don’t/ can’t answer the phone the first time.
I do understand what it’s like trying to get appointments- I’ve been there too - but GPS do mostly work very hard, want the best for their patients and are as frustrated as everyone else by the current conditions.