So sorry for NHS staff

[6demandingchildren]

Tried calling my GP practice this morning to get a telephone appointment, Mondays is the worst time to call as you can never get through but I was lucky only this time I was met with a different welcome message, it basically said that its not the receptionists fault if their are no available appointments and please do not take your frustrations out on the staff.
Anyway once the receptionist answered (this was around 10am) all the appointments for the day had gone and she asked what was wrong, I have only got pins and needles in my face so nothing major and she advised me to call back tomorrow morning or phone 111.
No wonder these poor people are so stressed out.

[quote ohfourfoxache]@Seedlipvshendricks just to build on your entirely sensible post - the average of 40 hours a week, does that include official hours only or unpaid overtime?[/quote]
It doesn’t specify, it was research by university of Manchester pre pandemic so will have gone up I expect. The article is very unpleasant, with opinions from various right wing pressure groups how to force doctors to work more but if you look at the actual numbers they are all complaining that GPS work on average the same as full time!

Yes you're quite right.
Disgusting.

Christ alive….. I honestly despair

That was to @Seedlipvshendricks btw

OP, I have had tingling in my face and scalp for around a year now. My GP referred me to neurology and I was told face tingling is a classic symptom of anxiety. They did, of course, do numerous blood tests and other tests to make sure there was nothing else going on.

I feel sorry for NHS staff, nurses, GP's all of them. They do an amazing job each and every one of them. The reason we have a bad service, and I'm going to say actually my family haven't had a bad service, is not because GPs not doing their job properly but because the whole system is not fit for purpose. There is not enough emphasis on self care, there are clearly not enough GPs and nurses, and there is an increasing aged population. Add to that the government not caring enough about anyone but themselves and that's where we are. I'm going to add that myself and my daughter have had ftf doctor appointments in different parts of the country, my partner has had phone appointments and we've all been to hospital for various reasons over the last two years so I really think that all these attacks are disgraceful. Add to this the covid deniers and the rest I really think we should be standing up for people who work in the NHS and demand better from our government for them.

I think people need to realise that skilled trained medical professionals of all sorts are a very scarce and valuable 'resource' the world over now.
We need them, more than they need us. Ignore that at your peril.

And they've been worked beyond the point of exhaustion and care, and they're fucking fed up, and now there's a bloody pile on politically and in the media, making out that they are the problem.

The expectations are unrealistic, the conditions not great, the pay 'okay' for some, seriously shit for others.

I seriously understand anyone in the profession deciding to give the middle index finger to the whole bloody mess right now.

Receptionist should not be asking you what’s wrong let alone giving advice. Most of their income comes from QUF points so they tend to focus on them. I have no sympathy for them at all.

Could be heading for end of NHS as we know it? Most GPs apparently are working part time and some probably remotely, for NHS anyway. Maybe they are all moving to private practices??

I must be the only one, reading this, who is ok with telephone consultations. I have a chronic illness that I can diagnose as easily as a gp can.
On the other hand, I phoned my surgery at 10:00 (well, that's when I got through, a little bit of waiting, but that was ok) told the receptionist a Dr in another country had told me I had a small brain tumour.

I had a gp appointment within two hours. After an half hours appointment, gp phoned me that afternoon to ask if I'd heard from hospital. When I said I hadnt, he got back to me giving me a time and date to see a specialist.

As far as I can see, the individuals in the nhs are doing a fantastic job. Our government are letting them down, massively, massively.

All that clapping! What was that for? Nurses can Not live on that.

My profession is bearing the direct brunt of patients not being able to access primary GP care. We are going out to people that really do not need an ambulance but cannot get a callback or an appointment with GP so call 111 who send us out.

Every time we go out to provide the care and support people are not getting from GPs, someone else is suffering and our call stack gets longer and longer.

We make life and death decisions on a daily basis and get paid a pittance, are abused by the public and our home lives are fucked because it's now the norm to be doing a 15hr+ frontline ambulance shift. Breakdowns, sickness and suicide rates among ambulance crew are the highest they have ever been with ambulance trusts beyond crisis point.

Among my colleagues there is a strong belief that there should be a national 24hr GP service, people should be better educated about what an emergency is and the absolute shitty joke that is 111 should be done away with.

Get used to it @Pixxie7 because you won’t be getting Gp advice for much longer

And QOF points aren’t all they are cracked up to be, especially as there is so much work being transferred from secondary/tertiary care. Don’t forget that the QOF framework was brought in a long time ago now - arguable it was never fit for purpose

@YogaLite

Could be heading for end of NHS as we know it? Most GPs apparently are working part time and some probably remotely, for NHS anyway. Maybe they are all moving to private practices??

Yet despite being ‘part time’ average number of hours worked was 40 pre pandemic. It’s in the daily mail today with much frothing about most GPs being part time. Who work on average the same as everyone else’s full time job!

And GP partners are private contractors who are paid a small sum per patient on their books.

@Maassi and then to top it all off you can’t get patients into A&E because ambulances are stacked up outside

The whole thing is an absolute fucking joke

There aren't the staff to cover 8-6.30 Mon- Fri in our practice let alone 24 hours. Three senior staff left this month, replaced with one junior so far.
I can work all the midweek evenings and Sunday afternoons you want, but then won't be there Monday morning or Friday afternoon.
And receptionists should absolutely be asking what's wrong to avoid inappropriate appointments with the wrong practitioner. Without this, you'd be waiting two months to see the GP rather than one.

For everyone moaning on this thread that the NHS does not meet their expectations - PLEASE remember at the next election.

The Tories do not care about the NHS or waiting lists. If you want decent healthcare we must have a labour govt.

Also married to a GP here. Salaried, not a partner. Whom I rarely see. A PT day is 9-5pm. An on call day and he could be locking the building at 12-2am.

Not life or death decisions all day by any means, more, if you don't spot the 1 in a 100 error, you could be sued, lose your job or cause death.

Verbal abuse from patients, little respect from the public ('just' a GP, often implying you're not clever enough to be a specialist.) Pay is okay, but not worth the stress. Like others have said, the job had practically broken a good, kind man. Who treats people with respect and kindness. So often a courtesy not returned.

We are definitely working on his exit plan from GPing. A terrible job, and whether he retrains in a different specialty or becomes a teacher, either way, he will need time out to recover from the job.

@cptartapp

There aren't the staff to cover 8-6.30 Mon- Fri in our practice let alone 24 hours. Three senior staff left this month, replaced with one junior so far. I can work all the midweek evenings and Sunday afternoons you want, but then won't be there Monday morning or Friday afternoon. And receptionists should absolutely be asking what's wrong to avoid inappropriate appointments with the wrong practitioner. Without this, you'd be waiting two months to see the GP rather than one.

You are defending a broken system. Perhaps the GP model needs to be addressed and funded centrally as an essential service rather than in the hands of private contractors who understandably are struggling. It 100% needs to be a 24hour service that the public can access.

Why shouldn't it be?!

@Pixxie7

Receptionist should not be asking you what’s wrong let alone giving advice. Most of their income comes from QUF points so they tend to focus on them. I have no sympathy for them at all.

This is categorically bollocks. I'm not sure whether you're mis-informed or lying but either way it's clear that any information you provide can't be trusted.

At most, it was around 20%. More recently it's been around 10%.

You can verify this for yourself: tinyurl.com/yac778fb

I honestly think they should charge a nominal amount (not for children)
for GPs visits.
So many people overweight, with type 2 diabetes, heart problems, it's a bottomless pit.

@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds

@ OttilieStonelady tedious

@Maassi General Practice is not an emergency service. General Practice has never been an emergency service. When practices have had routine early morning/late evening/weekend appointments in the past, patients don't show up. The 'commuter' clinics get booked up by the elderly.

@Georgewontsleepnow and for you and your dh. Can’t see the situation getting any better unfortunately.