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?

I'm in South London and haven't had any issues either. Usually get a phone appointment easily. In person if they deem it necessary.
GPs don't deserve a hard time and as the majority work really hard and want to help. There is a shortage though.

Not sure, but there's about 500,000 identical threads on here you could have read or joined- often with GPs replying with the statistics of huge INCREASE in appointments since 2 years ago. And where it has already been outlined in detail that this is a government and political issue and not the fault of individual GPs.

But individual GP practices aren't all doing the same thing.
I keep hearing about e consults on here, we've got nothing like that at our practice. There's no way of contacting the surgery, apart from trying to get through on the phone.
Often the phone won't be answered and there's no way of leaving a message. If reception eventually answers we're offered a phone consultation in 3 - 4 weeks time and told to phone 111 or go to A &E if the problem is urgent.

Everyone knows the NHS has been underfunded for years. An increasingly elderly population , greater expectation of life and health, more costly diagnostic/therapeutic technology have all put the costs of the service up massively.

Anyone working in the NHS has been witnessing “streamlining” (aka cuts) for years.
Why is anyone surprised that demand has outstripped supply in the wake of a pandemic?
Calling public service workers lazy doesn’t help anyone.

@Sirzy

But if 75% of the calls can be sorted with a triage call then overall that will be more time effective for the practise, especially when you factor in the extra cleaning etc needed between patients.

True. But there are many cases where common sense from the receptionist could avoid the 10minute call. For instance a baby with a potential ear infection needs to seen person. Twice a doctor on 111 has contacted the surgery to say DC need to be seen in person the surgery have STILL have a phone call first.

Pre-Covid my surgery still did over the phone triage, and it worked well. Because it wasn't a flat 'you have to have a call first' rule. So if it was young DC then 90% of the time it was straight to an appointment.

I was referred for an urgent scan by the GP. After 3 weeks of waiting I rang the ultrasound department and was told that they had downgraded it to a non-urgent scan.

One of the often trotted out bits of rubbish pre referendum was that "you couldn't get a Drs appointment due to all the immigrants" but that was a lie and funnily enough the situation is getting worse.
There are not enough GP's and the NHS is terribly underfunded, where's the imaginary £350 million a week now?!
This is privatisation by stealth by these Tory bastards.
And to the previous poster who said GP's are just overpaid and lazy...I cannot say in a public forum what I think about you but I do wonder how can you face yourself each day, you're a disgrace!

It’s the elderly I feel for - those without technology - how do they do econsult.
I was very spoilt at my GP pre COVID - they had a walk in clinic every morning that was packed but great.
Since then - e consult.
I’ve been seen by the practice nurse who was very good but she seemed to be the only one seeing patients. No one else in GP waiting area.
She went off sick -
I’m suspicious of the numbers quoted.
It’s easy to document a face to face contact rather than a telephone one.
I’m struggling to believe they are seeing more.
You can barely get in the door.
This is the new way of working - it has its advantages and disadvantages.

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.)

Exactly. Fortunately my SIL is a doctor so I spoke to her when the rash first appeared.

When on the phone to the receptionist to try and persuade her to change it to face to face at least (to no avail) I could hear another receptionist in the background on the phone saying they don’t do emergency appointments, only general appointments. What are people supposed to do then?!

@YearsSinceISawYou

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’ve no skin in the game as am not a GP or married to one. What I do have is a basic understanding that there is too much demand and not enough GPs. So they need to try to and reduce demand by limiting how we can see the smaller amount of GPs that we have.

Why is this so difficult for some people to understand? Does it make you feel better ranting online and showing your ignorance?

@YearsSinceISawYou

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 defending them but I'm neither a GP or married to one...just someone who deals with GPs on a day to day basis and sees the situation for what it is

@ErgonomicallyUnsound

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?

Lots don’t want to be GPs, and lots go abroad to work. And I think perhaps lots come from abroad to train in England, then return to their home country afterwards. When I trained, we had a large number of students from Hong Kong, who emigrated to America after qualifying.

No issues at all here with my practice.

I'm happy to take phone appointments if it's something that doesn't need to be in person.

And the couple of in personal appointments we've needed over the past year or so have been easy to book and attend.

SE London so not a quite area.

I haven't had any problems with my GP that weren't already there before the pandemic (e.g. sometimes not being able to get a same day appointment).

However our NHS is becoming a less and less appealing place to work, especially for GPs and especially since Brexit.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are shortages of qualified doctors which will have an impact.

This is driving me insane. My GPs are constantly mixing up telephone and the rare as hen's teeth face to face appointments. I wanted to ask about HRT recently, whilst quite distressed about symptoms. I had to make a phone appointment in advance using online booking, about 3 weeks out (you can phone on the day between 8-9 but I don't have 40 minutes to wait on hold at that time while trying to do the school run). I work from home and am on soon calls with customers pretty much back to back throughout. I managed to carve out a free hour around the appointment time, with my list of symptoms and question ready on my desk. The GP then called me 2 hours earlier than the appointment time because they were "trying to get ahead on their schedule of calls to make". I had to drop off a call and pick up the phone, in a completely different room to where I'd left the list of symptoms to discuss. She then aske dme to tell her "what's the problem" over the phone, with a terribel signal at their end, I was flustered and being hassled by my boss about dropping off the call, and at the end she said "oh I'didnt hear most of that" I think you will need to have a fave to face appointment..I was crying at this point. I wish GPs would realise other people have busy, stressful jobs, just like them.

So I was then granted a face to face appointment that she made for me to see the menopause specialist GP, another 3 week wait for that, but told me how lucky I was as "her waiting list is normally much longer, you should count yourself lucky". So I duly turned up at that appointment 3 weeks later, signed in, got called to the room and knocked on the door, to be answers eventually by the flustered menopause GP who said "oh, you're here, I've got you down as a telephone consultation". Because of that she had to rush through a 10 minute consultation, because that was all she had allocated and had some trainee doctor appt afterwards with someone waiting outside and in that time I was prescribed HRT which I now have but have no idea how to take or when as it was so rushed. I also had to make choices about which type after about 30 seconds of discussion and then was hurried out, still distressed.

I don't really blame the GPs, it's the practice managers at fault. I know they say GPs are working as normal etc and I'm sure they are, but the telephone booking system is fundamentally broken and isn't serving patients appropriately. I sympathize about time wasters and health anxiety people clogging up the system, but I am not one. I have a genuine medical issue, entirely appropriate to seeing a GP, and I was treated like an imposition, messed around and not given enough information to move forward. God help people with really time sensitive problems like cancer. I have now found a breaat lump so am unsure whether to proceed with the HRT and am absolutely dreading trying to get an appointment for someone to then try and book me another appointment for someone to look at it. The first telephone appointment is on 23rd October.

Do GPs think my experience is appropriate or good enough? How are more fragile people eg with depression meant to cope?

@ErgonomicallyUnsound

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?

No lack of uni places, plenty of people still applying for Medicine, just none want to be GPs by the end of it, and all this GP bashing that is going on at the moment isn't going to help improve that...

I’ve had no issues accessing a GP, although they have been phone appointments (I would have been seen if it was deemed necessary). It’s very concerning there are people who still can’t access their GP though. Experience seems to vary considerably across the country.

That is shocking!! We have been getting telephone consultations throughout the pandemic which are first come first served so have to call at 9am sharp. Since the lockdown has been eased GPs are seeing patients if they think there is a need after the telephone consultation.
But seems like we have been very lucky reading the comments on this thread- absolutely shocking that people are still unable to get appointments with doctors despite lockdown measures being eased. I really do it hope it gets better; how long are people supposed to carry on like this?

@YearsSinceISawYou

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.

Do you know what is going in every GP practice in the country then?

Yours is clearly letting you down but don't assume other GP aren't working their asses off because of it.

I'm not a GP not am I married to a GP. I do work in a GP surgery so am well aware of the amount of patients the GPs see. The practice is business as usual: telephone then f2f depending on issue (may get f2f straightaway). The practice is large and well over a hundred people are seen or spoken to via phone daily.
The practice where I attend as a patient-same as above.

What are GPS doing?
They’re quitting.
They’re going off sick with stress.
They’re being attacked by the general public.
They are taking their own lives.

Doctors don’t want to be GPs due to the huge lies and amount of hours to et have to do.

Twice this month one needed medical help, filled in the online thing and been triaged and had a telephone consultation the next day.

It’s not GPs doing this, it’s the government underfunding it. GPs want more doctors are more time with patients.

Some practices are better than others with the booking system.

Please don’t blame the ones you want to see as you might find next time you go there is one less GP and an even longer wait to be seen.

Our GP surgery has been fab throughout the pandemic. Tel apts when needed and face to face apts when needed. Secondary care has also continued without much issue. During the pandemic DH and I both had surgery, I had a baby, and DC1 has continued to receive care for an ongoing issue. Ante and post natal care has also been brilliant, all things considered. GPs aren't just sat there twiddling their thumbs, they're understaffed and overstretched. Why are people blaming the GPs and not this shit show of a government who have spent years underfunding the NHS?

Our GP came round and did a home visit yesterday, I think they are dealing with emergencies as best they can and non life threatening issues are just having to wait

The people saying hey can’t get an appointment? Is it just that you’re saying that as you want a face to face to discuss your medication review when it can be don’t the next day over the phone? That’s still a consultation!

Disclaimer no I’m not a GP of married to one, just someone sensible who can see what the government is doing to erode our NHS

@Musicaltheatremum I just want to send you love.

We are all struggling to access a GP. My mum can’t get an appointment for 3 weeks at a time, even a phone consultation. We can’t afford to pay for a private one as we are a fraction over a benefits trigger for income, but costs are rising so we are seriously short on money.