What are GPs actually doing right how?

[Darkchocolateandcoffee]

I've just been talking to my 84 yr old mum who can't get a GP appt for love nor money and is worried what she does next as she has a serious condition that she needs to talk to the doc about.

I love 100 miles away from her but I haven't been able to get a doc appointment for my children for months either.

One had such severe hayfever all through the summer and the only appt I could get was with my GP surgery's pharmacist over the phone, who sounded very unengaged and said the only remedies were OTC ones despite me saying we had tried all of them.

I eventually gave up and did a one-off private GP appt and got him prescription meds which worked straightaway. But I wasted weeks beforehand in which he was suffering trying to get the same thing via our usual GP.

Everyone I talk to says the same. The rest of the NHS seems to be firing on all cylinders.

What on EARTH are the GPs doing instead?

Oh yeah, the “not full time” thing. I work 3 days a week so not full time. The days are 12 hours. This would be considered full time for other roles in the nhs.I often come home to kiss the kids goodnight then switch on my laptop to finish signing the prescriptions for the day. On my days off I do medical reports which are not nhs work but that no one else can do (insurance reports, shotgun certificates, dvla reports, requests from DWP). I’d rather not do these but I get called all sorts of I decline. We have meetings about the management of the practice at evenings and weekends. I work regular Saturday mornings in winter to man the flu clinics.

If General Practice is no work for loads of money, why aren’t more doctors becoming GPs?

My surgery is also brilliant, I managed to get a phone call appointment within a week, I cannot thank the Doctors/Nurses enough for what they do.

@YearsSinceISawYou

In answer to your question: GPs are doing the bare minimum while drawing £100,000 a year.

There was no problem getting an appointment before the pandemic and now there is. What has changed?

They can get away with it, so they do, Over the years, they have done less and less-less evening appointments, weekend appointments and no home visits. Many of them retire early because they are on fat pensions.

Anyone who says otherwise has a skin in the game as the rest of us know we can't get an appointment and, if you do manage to get into the surgery to see a nurse-not a GP-the barriers and one way systems are stupid.

To conclude: lazy, over paid bastards-too thick or lazy to specialise-and now see a chance for doing less.

That's it.

Did you read my “day in the life” post? Can you point out the bit where I’m being lazy? I’d love to see which point in the day I’m doing nothing.

@YearsSinceISawYou

In answer to your question: GPs are doing the bare minimum while drawing £100,000 a year.

There was no problem getting an appointment before the pandemic and now there is. What has changed?

They can get away with it, so they do, Over the years, they have done less and less-less evening appointments, weekend appointments and no home visits. Many of them retire early because they are on fat pensions.

Anyone who says otherwise has a skin in the game as the rest of us know we can't get an appointment and, if you do manage to get into the surgery to see a nurse-not a GP-the barriers and one way systems are stupid.

To conclude: lazy, over paid bastards-too thick or lazy to specialise-and now see a chance for doing less.

That's it.

To conclude: poster too thick or lazy to read the posts by GPs on this thread and preferring to stick to "maaaah opinion!!!"

That's it.

My dd is seeing a private therapist. Otherwise it's a two year wait!!! I'm thankful we can afford this for her as we have had no holidays abroad

Luckily our GP practice seems to we working better since covid but I am thankful we seem to be lucky there as it definitely seems to differ.

We need medical staff from abroad and fast.

'The GP service where I am has been brilliant, in fact better than pre pandemic. Usually you'd wait 2 weeks for a face to face appt, now you get a call back the same day which I find is fine for most stuff and if you need to see the GP/nurse face to face then you will.'

Exactly! If they didn't call back or respond to econsults I could understand the moaning. We have replies within 24hrs.

Our surgery has opted out of Covid boosters too. Our trip for our jabs is a forty mild round trip. They aren't doing anything with eyes or ears (go to Specsavers). As they don't do mouths or teeth (dentist) I wonder if they bother with anything north of the neck at medical school. I thought our practice was the bees knees till recently and I would defend GPs. But now probably not.

And it's even worse where my parents live. They are in their 80s with various frailties and just can't get through to make an appointment. They feel abandoned by primary care. The practices aren't interested.

bagamoyo as the mum of a medical complex child that sort of pass the parcel approach drives me mad. I don’t know where in the system the blame lies for it and don’t blame any individual but it is a nightmare when it comes to trying to chase things up and make sure things are done.

“In September 2015, there were 28,100 fully qualified FTE GPs in England. In June 2021, there were 27,700, a 1.3% decrease. In February 2019, there were 25 million general practice appointments in England. In July 2021, there were 28 million, a 12% increase.”

This should be copied and pasted response to every single GP bashing thread. Not sure it would prevent the stupidity of posters on mumsnet who can’t get their heads round the very simple concept of supply and demand though. Instead they blame individual GPs for the breakdown in the system. Like the poster above who challenged a GP who was posting at 7am as an example of slacking - WTF.

One thing I'd never describe a gp as is thick?????

Has the poster of that statement got a medical degree

@taybert

Oh yeah, the “not full time” thing. I work 3 days a week so not full time. The days are 12 hours. This would be considered full time for other roles in the nhs.I often come home to kiss the kids goodnight then switch on my laptop to finish signing the prescriptions for the day. On my days off I do medical reports which are not nhs work but that no one else can do (insurance reports, shotgun certificates, dvla reports, requests from DWP). I’d rather not do these but I get called all sorts of I decline. We have meetings about the management of the practice at evenings and weekends. I work regular Saturday mornings in winter to man the flu clinics.

If General Practice is no work for loads of money, why aren’t more doctors becoming GPs?

That’s a very good point. Why is there a recruitment crisis if it’s such an easy well-paid job?
It was identified a few years ago that there was a shortage of GPs, so the government promised an extra 5000. Anyone know how many of those 5000 have actually started? None. In fact, 1400 have left. So we now have a GP deficit of 6400 GPs.

I’ll ask again - if it is such an easy job, why don’t more doctors want to do it?

@Musicaltheatremum

Well I'm working harder than I ever have. I'm speaking to and seeing more patients than ever. The reason you can't get an appointment is because demand has soared exponentially and there aren't enough GPs in the system. I am about to go in for a duty doctor session and I'm already having feelings of panic about it because quite simply the system is not safe.

I feel really sorry for patients...you are getting a really bad deal but to be honest we cannot see an indefinite number of patients in a day.

But what is really getting to every single GP in this country is the lies and misinformation that is being spread about us.

Yes there may be some GPs who are doing nothing but the rest of us are at breaking point.

I can deal with 30 patients a day quite safely but now we are dealing with about 30% more and that's not good for you.

One colleague said most of her surgery the other day was dealing with chasing hospital appointments so that is a really bad use of our time.

I was at a meeting last night ....290 GPs on it listening to our colleagues in the hospitals say there is no extra capacity there either so we have to try not to send patients there. It was really really depressing.

The children's hospital were saying there was a 30% increase in A&E attendances mostly minor coughs and colds which should not have been near a health professional...let alone hospital.

Mental health consultations have soared but there is a shortage of places to refer on to and patients are waiting over a year for psychology. Our favourite psychiatrist is retiring in December and they can't get a replacement.

So that's what's happening.

this

I tried to get a GP appointment for my baby who has a rash getting worse and spreading over his face and chest. I’ve already spoken to HV and pharmacist, pharmacist advised I go to GP.

Duly filled out econsult, and I’m given a PHONE appointment in 3 weeks time. The logic behind that completely baffles me.

@tiggerwhocamefortea I know a female GP who works full-time hours. I actually hope for her mental health she starts working part-time hours.

Also even if they do work full-time hours because most of the practices around me are open long hours e.g. mine is open 7.30am to 8pm, then whether an individual GP is full-time or not you won't be able to see the same GP unless you are specifically booked in for when they are working a shift.

Theres been a massive shortage of GPs for years. I worked in the NHS and GP's and nursing bodies have been warning successive governments about this issue for as long as I can remember. It was known that there would be a large amount of HCPs retiring (because it was well known that there was a huge peak of staff coming up to that age group)
Add in years of underfunding. wage cuts, pension rises, regular bashing by the media, introduction of IT systems but not decent IT because they wont invest in it properly. so everything you do takes much longer than it used to and the job became utter shit and more left.
I took a 50% income drop myself this year just to get out.
Governments knew this crisis was coming , they engineered it, They were warned and they did sweet fuck all about it, just pushed current staff to work harder and harder and cut their pay.
Unfortunately the pandemic has just accelerated the problems and this had made the job intolerable for many and they are retiring earlier than they would maybe have planned too, because they cant take it any more. Its only going to get worse,

@Redredwiney

I tried to get a GP appointment for my baby who has a rash getting worse and spreading over his face and chest. I’ve already spoken to HV and pharmacist, pharmacist advised I go to GP.

Duly filled out econsult, and I’m given a PHONE appointment in 3 weeks time. The logic behind that completely baffles me.

No doubt they want you to go to A&E if you think it is serious, or they are expecting it isn't serious and it will go away on it's own. (Until the next time.)

@Musicaltheatremum

Well I'm working harder than I ever have. I'm speaking to and seeing more patients than ever. The reason you can't get an appointment is because demand has soared exponentially and there aren't enough GPs in the system. I am about to go in for a duty doctor session and I'm already having feelings of panic about it because quite simply the system is not safe.

I feel really sorry for patients...you are getting a really bad deal but to be honest we cannot see an indefinite number of patients in a day.

But what is really getting to every single GP in this country is the lies and misinformation that is being spread about us.

Yes there may be some GPs who are doing nothing but the rest of us are at breaking point.

I can deal with 30 patients a day quite safely but now we are dealing with about 30% more and that's not good for you.

One colleague said most of her surgery the other day was dealing with chasing hospital appointments so that is a really bad use of our time.

I was at a meeting last night ....290 GPs on it listening to our colleagues in the hospitals say there is no extra capacity there either so we have to try not to send patients there. It was really really depressing.

The children's hospital were saying there was a 30% increase in A&E attendances mostly minor coughs and colds which should not have been near a health professional...let alone hospital.

Mental health consultations have soared but there is a shortage of places to refer on to and patients are waiting over a year for psychology. Our favourite psychiatrist is retiring in December and they can't get a replacement.

So that's what's happening.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. The gvmt misinformation and lies perpetuated through our propaganda-led media is obscene.

It's really good to hear what is really happening.

'he needed to see his GP recently for a change to his heart rhythm. Couldn't get through for days, couldn't use the online booking system because it wasn't working, receptionist told him someone would ring him some time during the day to ask him about his symptoms and then would decide whether to refer that on to a GP who would then make a decision whether to ring DH for a phone appointment only. It took all week to get that far.'

Who waits a week after very cleverly noting a 'change in their heart rhythm' . In a case like this next time ring 111 or the old mn fave go to A&E.

@YearsSinceISawYou

In answer to your question: GPs are doing the bare minimum while drawing £100,000 a year.

There was no problem getting an appointment before the pandemic and now there is. What has changed?

They can get away with it, so they do, Over the years, they have done less and less-less evening appointments, weekend appointments and no home visits. Many of them retire early because they are on fat pensions.

Anyone who says otherwise has a skin in the game as the rest of us know we can't get an appointment and, if you do manage to get into the surgery to see a nurse-not a GP-the barriers and one way systems are stupid.

To conclude: lazy, over paid bastards-too thick or lazy to specialise-and now see a chance for doing less.

That's it.

Ah a Brexit voter, as demonstrated by the complete absence of critical thinking.

Our area has had tiny covid numbers but GPS keep sending emails about how overworked they are. They could be replaced by diagnostic computer program as all they do is refer people onwards.

Don't talk shite!

@cptartapp

Well I'm just off to work, my clinic is rammed full of face to face appointments as it has been for months. Even during Covid we saw possible Covid patients in a hot hub with a plastic apron and paper mask. Hundreds of them. Alongside that we now have telephone appointments, all preplanned and precooked. I tried four people three times each yesterday and got no answer. Add in seeing hospital out patients they won't see, podiatry patients they won't see etc, in thirty years of nursing I've never been as busy. Covering flu clinics now too on my day off. Hand on heart our GP's are exactly the same. In our surgery at least. Doesn't help when three senior staff with over 100 years experience have all left this month alone. Not all surgeries are the same, but very many are busier dealing with unprecedented demand. I can't understand the disparity.

^^This.

I’ve had telephone consultations with GP and then they decide whether they need to see me face to face. However, “urgent” hospital referrals take the piss.

I'm not flat on my back with surprise at all the GPs or those married to GPs leap to defend themselves.

All saying how hard they work. Ha! Are they doing it wearing an invisible cloak?

They are not working, as most of us can see but keep on defending yourselves-pathetic.

I'm interested to understand what the issue is with not enough new GPs coming through.

I've been researching unis recently for DS and medicine seems more popular than ever? And more difficult to be accepted into? Many places offering students £10k to defer med school places a year last year because of demand outstripping supply. (Obvs this because of inflated grades but shows demand ).

Is there a lack of uni places/medical schools? Or are all those trained not wanting to be GPs?