GP bollocked me for a Facebook comment

[Lliria]

So, I don't know if I ll be the only one but basically my GP used my telephone consult to bollock me for a comment I made on FB.
Like all local FB groups there's always a whinge topic and even though our GP practice is very good sometimes the 7am App for making appointments just doesn't work so by the time I can call though all the appointments have gone sometimes by 9am. So I commented on a post that was already running about this- nothing mean just agreeing..
Weeks later I managed to book a phone consult off the 7am App. The GP called at 7.20 then 2 minutes into the chat had a proper go at me about my comment and said I'd hurt people's feelings etc.
I was shocked that a medical professional sabotaged my appointment to do this.
What I wrote in my private life has nothing to do with my medical consult - surely
Why is he reading through everyone s comments then using his position to say something ?
I feel it's inappropriate.
I've never even seen him as a patient.
I'm actually quite upset and feel I've taken the can for the other 62 people that made comments that day.
Maybe he was stressed but it's not ethical is it ?

No we don't think we're above criticism but we sure as hell have had it with the general public expecting infallible service when a Tory government has been elected by them and as a result the NHS is grossly underfunded and overworked to an epic degree. It's last straw time and this is what it looks like.

You should update your comments of fb and add that you were pulled up on your previous comment by the go

Well well well

if it isn't the consequence of my own actions 😅

big enough to give it then big enough to take it

You made a dig at them and they pulled you up on it? no point in complaining just move on with life.

Good on the GP! Don’t like it? Don’t bloody dish it out!

What I wrote in my private life

But it wasn't private. You posted your opinion in public.

Remember when you are being a keyboard warrior that there is a person on the other end.

And now the person you publicly criticised has taken the opportunity to tell you how you made them feel.

I totally sympathise either way your feelings about the problems with the appointment system.

But I also sympathise with the staff who are bearing the brunt of it

I know someone who did similar on FB about our GP practice. It was terrible at the time and the receptionists were very often rude to you. Anyway he comments on FB and they write to him (and others) and threatened to remove him from their register. Odd thing is his FB name is a variation of his real name so they had to do some work to work out who he was

As a former GP invalided out by cancer during the pandemic my sympathy is with the GP. He is working from 7am. Demonstrably you have managed to get an appointment despite your complaining that the system doesn’t work, and what patients fail to understand is that thanks to a right wing media campaign Primary care has become a scapegoat for a failing system which has been underfunded for years. GPs and their staff are getting a barrage of abuse. They are accused of being part time, not working hard enough or seeing patients when the workload is never ending and people’s expectations unrealistic. I am so glad I got out when I did. 13 hour days while being criticised from every direction is driving GPs out of practice.

You didn't make the comment privately though, you made it publicly.

Very true. The right wing media have scapegoated teachers too, to distract people from tory decimation of state education.
I hope your health is recovering.

This was completely unprofessional and inappropriate of him to do this during a medical consult. You absolutely should submit a formal written complaint about this behaviour.

As for the "overworked" nonsense being spouted on here, our local GP practice has a long list of GP's, of whom only two work full-time. ALL the rest work only 2 days per week and yet still manage to live locally in houses worth well over £1million (average house prices in our area is around £350-450K). Our GP practice is run as a ltd company, and they are raking in the cash, I keep an eye on their accounts online. People need to wake up and see that many GP surgeries are not even NHS. Ours is owned by one of the GP's, works two days per week and makes a small fortune from the funding they receive. And as for getting an appointment, it's an impossibility. The last time I tried to get an urgent appointment, they gave me a date 6 weeks later. A total joke.

Are you in North (previously East) Northants?

Repercussions? Seriously? What is this, the mafia? 😂

What about professional standards?

It was completely inappropriate behaviour on behalf of the gp!

The correct way of dealing with this would have been for the doctor to deal with the medical matter in hand and then at the end of the appointment, mention that they had noted their patient’s comment, apologise for the difficulty the op had in making an appointment, and say they were working on resolving the issue.

In other words they should have behaved like any other professional who offers a service.

Why are gps immune from complaints or from trying to raise standards? They are far from infallible.

Whilst we as patients should behave responsibly, and respectfully, I don’t understand the onus on us to be meekly grateful for an increasingly shoddy service?

Bearing in mind how overworked, etc. who would have thought GPs had the time, energy and inclination to scroll facebook for comments, make a note of reviewers and remember to tell them off them at their next appointment. Very odd.

Honestly I’m not saying what the GP did was right and he really shouldn’t have done it but I work in healthcare and I know what it feels like to constantly read/be told that the service that you’re trying your hardest to provide to the best of your ability is shit. I regularly read on the Facebook page for the hospital I work for or on acquaintance/friends facebooks that the department I work for provides a bad service or I hear it in the waiting room constantly. It’s soul destroying and it wears you down. We’re all just trying to do our best with the resources we have available unfortunately sometimes our best isn’t always good enough for some people.

Spot on @Whentherainisfallinginyourface

Yes it is unprofessional and uncalled for. Local community FB pages do have lots of people moaning on there but if you were just giving your opinion of the GP practice appointment booking system and saying it does not work I do not see how the practice can be upset about that. Did they not know the system doesn't work or do they not care? I get that slating the NHS is fair game at the moment and I think the care around the country is patchy with some being better than others but wasting time on a medical consult is not going to help your GP or you especially if you had a point.

That’s unacceptable behaviour, at the end of the day they’re providing a service. If it is a poor service like all poor services it will get criticised. They need to grow up.

While I agree that primary care is underfunded, the situation from the patient’s perspective is not that great either.

You mention unrealistic expectations; is it unrealistic to expect to be able to access a gp appointment for a serious chronic medical matter within a fortnight?

Is it unrealistic to expect to be seen without waiting for an hour or more each time you turn up in good time for your appointment?

Is it unrealistic to expect basic hygiene and a functioning lavatory in the waiting room?

Is it unrealistic to be expect that a gp’s receptionist can handle relaying a simple message correctly to an elderly frail ninety year old?

Because none of the above are realistic expectations in my home town’s gp practice.

GPs are overworked at the moment. Many patients did not vote conservative. GPs need the system to change too, because they’re exhausted. Is the way to do that to have patients say nothing publicly about how things are failing? If that happened, would that help raise the issue politically? Ultimately, if it’s true and valid feedback – like I can’t get an appointment for weeks on end – then that, while not nice to hear, surely is part of keeping awareness up that the system is failing / people aren’t happy? Ultimately, the only thing that political parties care about is getting voted in, when the time comes?

Long way of saying “how is the public keeping quiet about this, going to help?”

Yikes... yes it is unethical to use a medical appointment time to do this. He was seeing you as your doctor. If he wanted to raise it as a practice lead then the practice manager could have contacted you outside the appontment time. You can complain about this to the practice manager and ask to not see that doctor again.

GP Practice having a FB page is also bad news for both the patients and the staff.

Yes the health system is at breaking point, but that is no more your issues than theirs.

That was really inappropriate of him. Strange that he was so offended over this and people were upset, I also work in an industry people often slate but wouldn’t take offence like this.

Even better they could have called you to find out what the issues you were having actually were.

When you were still working as a GP, if you were aware a patient had complained about the appointment booking process on facebook, would you use consultation time to argue with them about it?

I’m shocked at the pp agreeing with the GP!!

No he should not have reprimanded you in an appointment, highly unethical

There is a problem with GP service overall

And we pay for our healthcare through our taxes!!

Doctors work long hours yes, but they knew this when they trained 7 years plus for it.

they get paid well and have enough holiday leave in the year to recuperate

All the U.K. doctors threatening to leave the nhs can, they are just replaced with doctors from abroad.