To think GPs are on the whole useless

[yellowflowers]

Everytime I go to the GP they either confirm I have what I think I have or say that I haven't and then when I go back a week later still with symptoms tell me I was right all along. I really cannot see the point of them beyond being a barrier between us and prescription drugs and so they can refer us to specialists if you are clever enough to look up your own symptoms and treatments and know a good source from a bad source. I feel with the help of google I could do as good a job as most GOs - "oh hello Mr Smith, you have an itchy arm do you, you have 'itchyarmitis. Here's some itch cream and if that doesn;t work I will give you an itch pill" or "hello Ms Jones, you have found a lump have you. That's probably okay but I will send you to a specialist just in case it isn't."

Can you tell I have had an unproductive trip to gp today?

But really, I am yet to meet one who knows more than a relatively intelligent person with access to a computer and half a brain.

mrsrissotto -my old pg was a psychiatrist and I am sure he knew a dam site more about mental health then you think you know.. bless him he stayed up all night with a lady who's dh had died. I am sure not all gp's are trained in psychiatry - but don't asmuem they don't know anything about mental health and don't give up there own lunch hour to sit and help a patient with mental health problems - cause it does happen.

this is from a poster who's mother was told "do you want the good news or the bad news first" "the good news is we now know whats wrong with you you have cancer" so I know there are gp's that are insensitive adn take 6 months to work out that a pateint has cancer.

I love google. How else would I work out

"the little yellow tablets from boots in the blue packet that didn't work anyway so please don't give me those ones doctor, but the ones in the orange packet helped a bit, no I didn't think to bring the packets doctor - would that have helped?"

I have had spectacular GPs and awful ones

The 'awful' don't read my notes & don't listen to me; there is a slight possibility that if I've had it 15-20 times before & one particular antibiotic is the only one that will clear it, and now I have it again then only that Ab will clear it this time (just maybe?)

The 'spectacular' listen & read notes - diagnosing obscure illnesses quickly and refer to to the correct specialists

There have (unfortunately) been more of the first type (in my life)

My childhood GP tried to teach me to be a good patient....I hope I learnt something

Katymac - how are you? I wondered if you'd appear on this thread. Not wanting to hijack, just hoping you and your DD are OK. Any progress? x

I'm here & here

But tbh the GP has had little to do with DD - they have tried very hard

Tbh I agree with the op, I have had excellent GP's in the past but awfull ones in probably greater numbers. Our current GP is pretty useless tbh, he searches google in front of patients (he is very experienced, not newly qualified), and generally seems quite half-hearted about everything.

He made us visit him 5 frigging days in a row before he would give ds1 antibiotics for a chest infection . 5 days in a row in the middle of bloody winter.

My poor Mum was fobbed off for months when she was ill, eventually admitted to hospital in agonising pain, died 3 weeks later from lung cancer which had spread.

But when my Mum was discharged from hospital still in pain and puking every 5 minutes and the district nurses were being crap. It was the GP I phoned in desperation who took charge and sorted things out. She forced a morphine anti-sickness pump, sorted out the nurses, managed my Mum until she went into the hospice.

She was a GOOD GP, she visited when she had time, she was straight forward, not waffly to the point of being stern, knew what she was talking about and made things happen. Pretty rare imo.

for my health i haven't had a problem since i was young, but the doctors did get it very wrong with me and im lucky to be alive and be able to have children, so i tell them what i want to be done now.

But as for ds this is another story, i feel like something awful has to happen i.e he needs to be hospitalised for them to sit up and take any notice of what im saying. I think most of the time they have me down as some sort of paranoid mother, but 9/10 i'm right and they are wrong so now i feel i have to be more forceful, i dont want history repeating itself!

Look.. the people who are saying 'If you don't like it, don't go to a GP' are missing the point.

You are forced to go to the GP to get permission for the medicine you need, even if you know exactly what it is.

There is a really good debate to be had here. We are becoming much more empowered and more knowledgeable as consumers in general. We do our own banking. We buy houses and cars online. We can book low cost holidays directly. At one time, these things would have been seen as too difficult for the average consumer. The role of the middleman or agent is increasingly being phased out and I really see that trend growing in the US in healthcare. Diagnostic equipment is becoming cheaper, simpler and more available whether it be pregnancy tests, dopplers or blood pressure cuffs.

Even the NHS is pushing towards self-diagnosing and treatment through its websites.

It's a fascinating question as to how 'empowered' we will allow the average citizen to be. What drugs are restricted and why. (And the online pharmacy business is growing HUGE in the US because legal drugs are just too expensive.)

And yes, some people have researched far more about their own conditions than their GPs.

Take a look at some of the threads around here to see how much the average GP knows about breastfeeding. Or conditions like tongue-tie.

I tried everything to sort out a particular condition I'd seen doctors for, then finally figured out a particular diet change worked. It allowed me to come off my medication completely (after taking a high dose and still having breakthrough symptoms for a long time and trying several times to remove the medication unsuccessfully). My GP poo-poo'd it altogether and kept going on about how I must have lost weight because she'd had the same condition and it worked for her.

LOL

I remember seeing a 12 year old GP when I was pregnant, fucking useless she was. "are you pregnant" err yes. did not even examine me, twat

However nothing matches up the the bitch of a nurse practicioner at my local service. Will only see you for one thing at a time, so even if you have 2 ailments, have to make second appt. and she was not understanding when I had a sore fanjo episode

I love the hospital docs and nurses though, prefer to go to A&E!!!!

I was very saddened when I watched the news last night and saw that part of the new NHS changes that Cameron has bought in is to give more power to the GP. They said something like, that 80% of the power and decisions would now lie with the GP.
Just thought this was all wrong.

My GP is extremely useless. He is honest about it though. He often says "Oh i don't know what that could be, I will just look it up on the internet" Well usually i already have. The only difference is I can't write my own prescriptions and I don't get paid a fortune.

Many A&E departments now have GPs attached to them. So you may craftily go straight through to A&E with your minor complaint, only to be met by another GP. Most likely, one you haven't met before.

Please don't go to A&E unless it's an accident or an emergency!

IME (terminally ill relative being cared for at home) GP's do a fantastic job and go above and beyond the call of duty. Worth every penny of whatever it is they are paid.

Thing is, if you are interested in whatever's wrong with you, you can spend hours on the internet looking up everything to do with that particular condition. The GP has to deal with hundreds if not thousands of different complaints and know which ones are trivial or can be easily treated and which are red flags that need urgent referral or more investigations - and what kinds of investigations are appropriate.

You can't expect every GP to be an expert on condition X or Y. You have more time to focus on it.

However, it is sadly true that there are some crap GPs out there. Just as there are crap solicitors and architects and accountants and plumbers and whatever.

OP, YABU.

Carmen: I am so not loving the idea of the general public having more access to drugs, etc., at least in a world in which there is so much profit to be made from pharmaceuticals.

Really not looking forward to a brave new world of drug-resistant strains of disease and a population doped up on drugs they don't need, but have been sold by an avaricious drugs industry.

I understand it must be beyond frustrating to have to struggle for the medication you need. But if self-diagnosis and prescription become the norm, do you really think the general public will behave in a restrained way? It's human nature to think, "ooh, I'd better take X drug, just in case..." Look at the number of people, who despite telling, insist on having ABs for viral infections.

Our GP is sadly so laid back that it borders on useless
After a terrifying incident where he failed to act, he was sent a very stern letter from the specialist who we ended up with.(we were sent a copy as well)
Now he simply says 'oh you have private insurance so I'll send you to a specialist', even if the issue is a splinter

I think maybe people have unrealistic expectations of what medicine can do. There's a lot more guessing and trial and error than people expect of a science.

I guess we nee dto accept that most things that involve a cough, a cold, a sore throat, a headache or an upset tummy will not be treated but will be left to heal on their own. No money will be spent on naming your virus.

Having said that, I really like my GP. She's a genuinely caring person and does a lot of smiling which is a tonic in itself...

YABU to think we should let patients make up their own diagnoses and treatment plans based on what they can find on Wikipedia. You've only to read the health boards on MN to find people convinced that they have a case of 'X' conveniently forgetting that the symptoms of 'X' are also common to conditions 'Y' and 'Z'. There's already a roaring internet trade in dodgy medication marketed to the 'worried well'... not to mention the vultures willing to make a fortune out of the 'desperate incurables' with offers of stem-cells and the like.

GPs are a mixed bunch but I would rather trust my health to someone qualified & experienced in medicine than to go the very dangerous DIY route. Second opinions are available if people aren't happy with what they get first time around.

Self-referral directly to specialist is not realistic. Take a persistent headache, where would you go? Straight to neurosurgeon? Or any of the other dozen specialities that could investigate. Perhaps GP as first port of call is not so bad after all.

"Very dangerous DIY route"
"A population doped up on drugs they don't need"

This is what the medical industry thrives on... Insisting the public are stupid. We can handle our own banking, driving a car and parenting our children but we can't make a sensible choice about using an antibiotic cream or taking a painkiller.

Doctors have a place. They have training and experience. But you don't always need an expert. If you have a problem in your home, you assess the situation - maybe you need to call someone in to help. Maybe you can handle some of it yourself. Maybe you can do the whole thing. It's the same! Except B&Q don't prevent you from buying the tools to do the job because you /might/ screw it up and chop your fingers off.

Anyone except a doctor in healthcare has to pre-empt anything they say in the US with, "Ask your doctor." I trained as a lactation counselor. I have far more training than most paediatricians in the US in breastfeeding issues - most of whom can't even recognise tongue-tie, but I still have to refer to a doctor for most actual problems. The doctor's position is so tightly protected by their professional bodies which has influenced law, malpractice, insurance etc. etc.

And there is a push against anything not FDA approved. There was a big backlash against cosmetic contact lenses being imported. Guy on the news said, "They're illegal so they can't be good for you" - they carry the CE mark and are fine in Europe!

It's all protectionism.

My DH is a GP. I wouldn't want his job, it's crap! He gets a buzz out of it still, loves to walk away from a consultation knowing he has really helped someone but the amount of crap he has to put up with from Joe Public is astonishing.

Laura - you want to try being a housing officer or social worker - now they do seem to have a tough job (am not one and have never been but have heard it is a constant stream of abuse).

Thats work with the public I am afraid!