At what point do you think we will beable to see a GP again?

[TheNightWatch]

Honestly Ive worked all the way through this as have all the doctors at work and people in many other industries so why cant I see a bloody GP? I just dont get it? Im on hold for minutes every day to be told appointments for the day are full.

I know three people who have recently died of cancer that was literally only just diagnosed. There was no chance of treatment. All in their late 50’s. Im not saying they wouldve survived but at least they wouldve had a shot at some treatment. My elderly parents without computers or free phone data what chance have they had to see a real live person?

When this is over will there be some kind of enquiry? Why are some people just not back to a full service like vets for example for difference does it make to them if we want to go in and comfort our pet?

@Jampot1

I saw my GP yesterday, not for an appointment…. the surgery is closed and shuttered, but at the local garden centre and I recognised them because they weren’t wearing a mask!

You haven't been able to get an appointment because they are all booked, not because they don't exist.

In fairness (if it is anything like my GP practice) the appointments are all booked because there are almost no face-to-face appointments to book. There seems to be one locum registrar and one practice nurse seeing the most urgent patients, while the six partner GPs are either absent or using telephone appointments to redirect patients elsewhere (A&E, minor injuries, specsavers, anywhere else - appropriate or not).

I work in a hospital and there is a widely held feeling that GP services have opted out of many key aspects of their role. And if any GP or wife of GP is about to tell me they have been seeing patients night and day since February 2020, I would genuinely like to know if you believe that to be true of GPs in general.

@TheNightWatch

Its a bloody joke all the medical staff at my hospital have worked all the way through its made no difference to our work load.

All the medical staff at my place have worked all the way through too. Our workload has massively increased too. I work in a GP Surgery as a Practice Nurse and I am sick to death of the bashing that my colleagues receive in the press and on forums like this

@Goldi321

GP trainee here, I’ve worked both in the hospital on acute medicine (lots of Covid!) and in primary care during this pandemic. Primary care is madness at the moment. In my practice we are all doing 12hr+ days, seeing patients F2F but triaging this on the phone first. The demand is crazy, we will never be able to meet it at this current rate. The reason why you can’t get an appointment is not because we are sat twiddling our thumbs, we are working our arses off squeezing more and more patients into the day. From a new person coming into this it appears unsustainable and I, and many of my cohort, do not see this as a lifelong career because of this.

What's your e-consult system like, @Goldi321?

I'm wondering what its threshold is for flashing up the message to call 111 or 999? My GP's does it very quickly.

Thanks for your work in primary care btw. It really is screwed, isn't it?

@SpindleWhorl

I have a similar experience, *@TheNightWatch*.

I'm glad for the posters who have a good service, but many of us do not. Please don't denigrate our experiences, which quite frankly are stressful, frustrating and at times downright scary if you think you've got the symptoms of cancer.

I've got a CT scan finally coming up that I should have been able to get quickly through my primary care GP. No chance. I went via the medical secretary of a consultant whose clinic I am currently in, i.e. via secondary care.

There's a gaping disparity.

Of course there is but honestly I think it goes both ways. I know my own GP worked from home talking to patients while he had covid. So I think it's a bit shitty for all of the practice staff and their families for people to imply they haven't been working.

I by the way have no vested interest in this. I don't work in a gp practice or know anyone who does. But I am a patient with health issues. Who has had good care throughout.

As soon as you book an appointment?

I work in a hospital and there is a widely held feeling that GP services have opted out of many key aspects of their role. And if any GP or wife of GP is about to tell me they have been seeing patients night and day since February 2020, I would genuinely like to know if you believe that to be true of GPs in general.

I've seen this attitude a lot from secondary care recently and it saddens me.

I think Practice Nurses are working a bell of a lot harder than my surgery's GP partners.

And who's getting paid what?

@TheYearOfSmallThings

You haven't been able to get an appointment because they are all booked, not because they don't exist.

In fairness (if it is anything like my GP practice) the appointments are all booked because there are almost no face-to-face appointments to book. There seems to be one locum registrar and one practice nurse seeing the most urgent patients, while the six partner GPs are either absent or using telephone appointments to redirect patients elsewhere (A&E, minor injuries, specsavers, anywhere else - appropriate or not).

I work in a hospital and there is a widely held feeling that GP services have opted out of many key aspects of their role. And if any GP or wife of GP is about to tell me they have been seeing patients night and day since February 2020, I would genuinely like to know if you believe that to be true of GPs in general.

I agree. Our hospital services have all ran smoothly.

To answer your question about the vets, especially for our vets, quite simply it’s a small team. If they are required to isolate, it closes the entire practice. Our vets are planning on opening up more once they no longer have to isolate if double jabbed in August. The other site for our vets are still working in teams to minimise the disruption if one team has to self isolate, so they don’t have to close the whole practice.

I was called for an annual health review at my gp to actually see someone didn’t have one last year so they seem to be getting back to some normality here.

Also ive never had aproblem seeing a nurse in my surgery

What job do you do in the hospital op?

I absolutely bet all the outpatient appointments aren't face to face

I absolutely bet all the outpatient appointments aren't face to face

I'm kind of hoping my forthcoming CT scan is going to be.

Our doctors are certainly not open as normal! Although maybe this is the ‘new normal’ people talk about. I phoned the surgery with an urgent issue two weeks ago and was told to go straight to a and e. The triage doctor asked why I had presented at a and e as the issue should have been dealt with by the GPs. I said that is who had sent me to a and e (without seeing me) and you could see he thought that was ridiculous. We waited 5.5 hours to see the hospital doctor For 10 minutes and then prescribed medication and sent home.

The wait in our local a and e was apparently 12 hours earlier in the week as so many people are presenting there P, combined with staff shortages and it’s not a surprise when general practice is in such a mess.

My rheumatologist appointments were face to face we were given the choice. My post surgery to check my wound also face to face. Getting painrelief or seeing the gp for a sick note? No face to face. I could’ve been signed off for as long as I fancied no one wanted to check.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fears-doctors-suffer-burnout-nhs-23498066.amp

@SpindleWhorl We have a very elderly population and so the online services are not used very often. I don’t think we would cope with it if it were used more frequently and I fee very strongly that it creates an imbalance in access to care- the young, computer literate patients can use the systems but our frail, vulnerable, complex patients would struggle.
We are a small, rural practice and I think our patients get excellent service. We will try our best to speak to everyone who calls on the day, and we will see anyone who needs to be seen and has called up to 6.30pm.
I’m noticing an increase of people calling who were never available on that day by for a F2F, I speak to people on holiday, who don’t want to cancel plans to go out, who aren’t even in the country (!).

Sorry, should have added I'm in south London, Lambeth.