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 ?

This completely

I don't think it matters what you said. Even if you had said he is a complete arsehole it's not professional or appropriate to discuss that in your medical appointment. What a waste of time considering that your appointment is meant to be only 10min long.

Don't be so ridiculous of course OP didn't

Christ the boot lickers are busy on this thread.

OP and other patients are perfectly entitled to make comments about a service - and it IS a service we pay for through taxes not a favour bestowed on us by beneficent GPs - is difficult to access or not up to standard.

For a GP to use a limited time, hard to get appointment to settle grievances is outrageous and totally out of order. I would speak to the practice manager and update my facebook comment to let others know this GP is likely to waste their appointments by having a go. If he wants to control people’s opinions through shaming them, he can as a bootlicker upthread said, take what he dishes out.

As for Facebook comments hurting people’s feelings - is that better or worse than people being left to suffer in pain, with chronic issues worsening or having missed diagnosis of serious illness because accessing a GP appointment in a timely manner is nigh on impossible now? That should be the GPs concern.

So the OP struggles to get an appointment, finally gets one but the time is spent moaning at her for a comment on FB. Absolutely awful waste of clinical time and obviously going to cause breakdown of relationship with the patient. GP had no right to behave like this.

Compare this with my private dental practice.

Have a little think about what you have posted.

What could be the difference between a GP practice and a PRIVATE dental practice.

Consult has always been a verb. It's increasingly used as a noun though.

People seem to find the additional 2 syllables in "consultation" altogether too time consuming or complex to say.

It doesn’t matter one jot what you said or where you said it, a GP appointment is to discuss clinical matters and are like gold dust to even get. Our GP’s time is so precious we can only discuss one issue, even if two things might be related, when my DD was a baby and had thrush in her mouth I asked if that could be passed to me through breastfeeding (so I could go to the chemist and get something for it instead of constantly passing it back to her) and was told I would have to make another appointment to get an answer to that question. So the thought of a GP wasting appointment time on non medical matters boils my blood and I think you should complain.

GP’s are paid, and paid well, they don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts and the can be arseholes just like everyone else.

This is spot on.

Criticism isn't abuse

It's the same with "invite" and "invitation"

Drives me crackers.

I think it's right to address the issue directly because instead of taking up any problem with the surgery directly, the OP had joined in a public slating. Bearing in mind the GP surgery will already be overworked, there probably isn't time to contact everyone individually.

Why should the surgery put up with public comments that aren't designed to resolve a problem but have an effect on over worked staff?

It's the equivalent to the parent WhatsApp group that slags off the teacher behind her back.

That line about having faith is disturbing. So people can't tell the truth about how hard it is to get an appointment in case it damages the "faith" in the GP practice - when what actually damages it is the fact it's hard to get an appointment? The public do not have a responsibility to pretend things are OK in a clearly inadequate system so that people don't lose faith. How patronising.

If that is genuinely what you said, I'd complain. And also reiterate that the feedback you provided is accurate.

I can't believe anyone is defending the GP here. This was completely inappropriate and unprofessional. Even if OP's comment was abusive then the correct course of action was for the practice manager to contact her and, if necessary, explain they'd be removing her from the patient list. There is no reason ever that this should be brought up in a medical appointment.

Nobody is pretending it's "OK", but "slagging off" a practice on a public forum implies that the people who work there are themselves lazy/ incompetent/ uncaring etc, and this isn't so.

It is the system itself which is at fault.

People may be put off contacting the practice because they feel they'll never get through, or they won't get treatment etc, and often things which appear to be minor can have major implications.

We also only have OP's account of what she said and what the GP said. The likelihood is that she was a lot ruder, and her was a lot less so, otherwise surly she would be looking for another practice.

It also appears that she got her consultation.

If the "truth" about a practice is that it is a poor one, then report it officially, don't just join an online bitchfest. That is the real "public responsibility". The way something can be done about it, and it will also protect the people most likely to be affected by a poor practice - the vulnerable and the very elderly - who are less likely to be online.

Maybe question your own ethics op? You're criticising the GP but also need their services. You're maligning the people who turn up day after day to maintain the service. GPs are just easy targets. If you have a problem with the service the GP is providing contact your MP. It's the government co-ordinating the downfall of general practice.

Saying that the app sometimes doesn't work is a pretty neutral and factual observation, it's not using the internet to criticise staff. Assuming it's been reported fully on here with no glaring omissions I'd find it hard to see how individuals from the surgery can feel hurt or offended by that comment.

We haven't been told what the GP actually said that was the bollocking. I once made a Facebook comment about having had a frustrating appointment with a certain type of professional, and I had a phone call from the individual which was essentially a bollocking but they were very polite about it - said that my comment had been noticed and that she was sorry I felt that way and was there anything she could do to help... I felt bollocked but learned my lesson and deleted the mutual "friend" who must have passed it on because the status was set to friends only" about commenting about things on Facebook, and the way she handled it was professional. If what he actually said was a brief "I was sorry to read your comments on Facebook, our staff were very hurt but that thread" and also still gave you the time and attention that you needed for your actual appointment, I think take it as lesson learned. I think if he spent 8 out of 10 minutes of an appointment giving you a proper dressing down telling off I'd complain to the practice manager that this is inappropriate behaviour for your GP and inappropriate use of the precious 10 minute appointment. Even more so because the reason for having an appointment may have involved embarrassment (health concerns and "bothering" the doctor can easily feel embambarassing) and a GP should be using those few minutes to make their patient feel at ease, not tense and at odds with the professional they are consulting with.

Our GPs computer system is temperamental. They have a Facebook page and post an explanation and apologies immediately, also tell us when it's up and running again.

Get ahead of the problem. We all understand.

Yep, very true. It simply wasn't appropriate.

100% this.

If you wanted to, you could probably raise this as an issue to the practice manager and say that the GP having a go at you for adding a comment to an already existing post on FB ate into your appointment time and as you and everyone else is aware, getting an appointment is difficult enough but to then have time given over to the GP's personal indignation over a single post on social media is unacceptable. If they wanted to have a word with you about it, then they should set up a meeting with you about it separately to your medical appointment.
They shouldn't have used your valuable time in your appointment with them for them to then berate you for your post, particularly if getting appointments in this particular GP Surgery is as difficult as the social media post reports.

I really don't think that saying that an app doesn't work sometimes at critical service times is maligning anybody.

I also don't think that GPs or anybody should be beyond criticism.

(obviously there are better and more effective channels to do so than a Facebook thread)

Of course it isn't. I'd understand if people were saying they thought OP had said something worse than she's claimed here, but there is simply no sensible way to argue that pointing out an app doesn't work is maligning anyone.

People may be put off contacting the practice because they feel they'll never get through, or they won't get treatment etc, and often things which appear to be minor can have major implications.

People pointing out, truthfully, that it's hard to get GP appointments are not at fault for this. It IS hard to get through and get treatment at the moment - even worse than before the pandemic - and pointing that out is not wrong. It's like blaming the boy in the Emperor's New Clothes for saying the emperor is naked, in case that makes people think he's naked when actually they'll soon find out for themselves. I'm sure there are many people who would LOVE to be seen in a timely manner for things which have major implications - or seen at all, rather than a phone call - but can't, and it's nothing to do with people posting comments on Facebook.

The government knows exactly how bad it is and clearly don't have the will to change it; it suits them to encourage privatisation. Public groundswell of opinion can effect change in the form of voting in someone else at the next election.

And whatever the OP said, it's ludicrously inappropriate and unprofessional for a doctor to mention it to her. The duty of care goes one way.