to absolutely hate the anti GP/doctor bashing mentality on MN?

[macdoodle]

When most if not all the doctors/GP's I know personally and professionally have a lot of training, and are doing the best they can, despite ridiculous government rules and beuarocracy, and dont get paid a fortune, far from it!

In fact I know IANBU, so much so, that I am taking a break from MN because the lot of you dr bashing makes me feel slightly ill, and some of those calling their GP's twats make me feel so angry I may say something I will regret

Lots of people want to help people through their career or in other ways, though, Rebecca, and go the extra mile to do so. My advice is that even if you are a hardworking fabster public servant extraordinaire, which I'm sure you are, you should never, never, ever expect gratitude! I'm a member of perhaps the most vilified public sector profession of all (social work) so feel I can speak with authority on this matter.

Anyway, I'll tell you a joke to cheer you up:

Sherlock Holmes sticks a yellow citrus fruit up Watson's bum

Watson says: "Eeek, Holmes! What was that?!"

Holmes says: "It's a lemon entry, my dear Watson."

My GPs are fab. But you have to suck it up really. I'm a teacher. God knows everyone's an expert on that. You've just got to ignore it and get on with the job.

And £45K for a part time job isn't too dusty really... You'd be "entitled" to more if you worked more hours or had more responsibility I would imagine.

bashing ? no, sorry you are not being bashed. many people have said there are good and bad gp's.
on the other thread one Gp said she earnt 100k. she had struggled to get a house with a garden for her ds, i think is what she said.
100k is alot of money to me. dh earns good money and mine is more than reasonable. but 100k still sounds alot to me. and to most people , i think.
but its not the money , thats the main issue here.
i never doubted that any gp poster cared for her patients, or worked diligently.
where is all this 'bashing' of which you speak ?

Does no one like my joke? [thin skin]

I'm guessing you're all helpless with laughter and unable to post at the moment.

Excellent auto, Excellent (says as picks herself off floor).

(secretly asking what is a lemon entry?)

rebecca- during your degree you paid what £1-3k pa for a course that costs the taxpayer £18k pa. That's a pretty good deal IMO.

I thought you were only a junior doc for one year?

And hasn't the working time directive meant a cut in juniors' hours?

You would have known about these long hours when you applied to do medicine wouldn't you have? There are plenty of other jobs where you get to 'care about' people but they dont pay £45k for a 37hr week.

Just because a doctor is 'doing his/her best' doesn't mean that is good enough.

tribunalgoer
"How can you work 100 hour weeks? That will only leave 4 hours in 24 for sleep and eating and showering and paying your bills etc."

Calculate it over 7 days - 15 hours a day 7 days a week is 105 hours. Was about average when I was training. Normal week would be 7.30 to 6.30 with 7.30 - 0000 one day a week for oncall (ie running around A+E and the hospital like a blue arsed fly) then every four weeks work the weekend aswell and then a week of nights and then a few days off and start again.

foreverastudent a junior doctor is anyone still in training ie not a consultant or a GP so mostly between 5-10years.

citrus fruit up bottom = a lemon entry
a lemon entry = elementary

So it's alemonentry my dear watson...

geddit geddit?

geddit finally. Now I find it amusing.

Never was good at understanding jokes.

Regarding the payment during the first years, here's a link to doctors' salaries Add another 40-60% for the junior doctors (HO, SHO), depending on the specialty and kind of additional shifts done.

I would actually agree that it's a lot of money for some of the very young doctors in training. I've never seen so many people obsessed with BMWs.

OP - don't let it get to you. There are always threads on MN bashing one profession or another but I think most people don't mean it, really, just in the heat of the argument you get into entrenched positions.

I'll be taking a break from MN too, we're going on holiday

Good joke, auto, probably better if it's said out loud, though.

There are some great GPs out there. However, some do make mistakes.

I was ill last year and was mis-diagnosed on 5 separate occasions over a 3 weeks period by 4 different doctors at the same practice. This lead to a life threatening illness and my symptoms were text book.

Eventually, I was diagnosed correctly but had become so ill I was rushed to hospital by ambulance and spent 16 days being treated and months recovering at home.

If I had been diagnosed correctly I could have been treated quickly at home with antibiotics.

The practice have responded correctly to their mistake, they have taken responsibility and taken steps to ensure that this does not happen again to anyone else. I have had various meetings and recorded a video for them of my experience (at their request). They have apologised.

I have accepted this & will take no further action.

I am not into GP bashing but feel that you need to be realistic. We all make mistakes. But if a GP gets it wrong they could kill someone.

Not very topical perhaps...

Let's try:

Doctor, Doctor
I can't stop stealing things...
Take these pills for a week; if that doesn't work I'll have a plasma TV!

Doctor, Doctor
I think I've broken my neck...
Don't worry - keep your chin up!

"if that doesn't work I'll have a plasma TV!" I think the GMC need to be informed if it's more than a home grown beetroot and a couple of eggs

I think it's just like any other profession - some are good, some are not. I've seen some that are not, but there are a couple at our local surgery that are spot on - very clued in and they listen closely to what we as patients have to say. One spotted my having a serious illness despite very vague symptoms, listening to me and giving weight to my saying that I just didn't feel right. If she hadn't sent me to the hospital immediately, I might not be here today. (I'm not so keen on the other GP that poo-poo'd my symptoms and complaints a few days previously and gave me instructions that actually worsened my condition.)

YABU

I posted on both the "silly things a hcp has said to you" and the "Fabbola hcp" thread.Am hcp myself.have probably talked shite on a bad day (winces).mn has threads about teachers,sw,doctors,hv,nurses and so on.Op i think if you have let this upset you you do need to take a little time out,as i say i posted on both threads,1 about dp gp who initially i thought to be a twat but who after his dx turned out to be lovely and wonderful and always did home visits.He did tell,me he thought dp would be back at work 2 years after dx but as i never disclosed i was an oncology nurse and felt taht he was trying to keep dp spirits up during a difficult time i let him off.I guess we are all human and all try our best.It isnt an exact science.I will always be so grateful to dps amazing consultant and fabby icu staff though.

gorionine that's exactly the point I was trying to make. That GP lumping all mothers together made that a bad experience for you.

What people need to do is make specific complaints about the bad ones and weed them out.

YABU. I never used to use my gp surgery until I had children and I have been horrified by the complete lack of compassion and professionalism exhibited by the gps I have seen.

So many examples, but most notably:

Taking my 6 month old baby to see the gp three times after she kept being sick over a two day period. Told to just keep giving her water. Disregarded this advice (thankfully) and took her to A&E, baby admitted immediately and I was told off by doctor for not bringing her in sooner. She was completely dehydrated and very poorly. Will never forget how ill she was and worry to this day what would have happened if I'd listened to gp and just kept giving her water .

Had a second degree tear afer dd2 and reluctantly saw gp because I was worried tear wasn't healing. GP looked very quickly (almost as if she was disgusted) and said and I quote 'you will need a complete repair of your perenium' fastforward me going home and being completely hysterical and desperately begging the hospital for an appointment with a gynae who quite sensibly told me I'd had a baby only 3 weeks ago and it would take a little bit longer to heal and I would not need a repair. He was pretty shocked that my gp was giving out such a radical diagnosis...

GP's earn a very decent wage and while I understand they have a difficult job to do, I pay my taxes and expect a professional service. I too do a very pressurised, stressful job for not even a quarter of what the average gp earns and I would be sacked if I made such errors in my job and my job does not involve the serious issue of peoples' health!

People tend to post on the internet when they are pissed off though dont they.

Witness the popularity of AIBU

People get upset at GPs because they often feel very vunerable. When you feel like that and someone says something stupid it is very hard to keep it all in proportion.

I think GPs are paid pretty well TBH. I think they deserve a good pay because of the training involved and because of the responsibilty they carry.

But they are not Gods nor are they infalible.

My GPs are ok. I choose to see a particular one at the practice because she is lovely. I will be eternally greateful to her because when I took my DD to see her she sent her for blood tests straight away.

My DD didnt survive her cancer but at least she was dianosed fairly quickly (she would have been dx sooner but for the fucking hospital - I have every right to be pissed about that).

I pulled her aside as she passed me in the waiting room. She looked a bit alarmed until I thanked her for what she did. I think it threw her TBH which suggests that sort of thing doesnt happen very often - that is a ashame.

Havent read through all the posts but my opinion is YANBU

There are some terribly sad individual stories on this thread,and doubtless some cases to answer from health professionsals. However, I think that Reasonabledoubts comment does sum up part of the issues we are dealing with:

"I do sympathise with GPs to some extent. Our expectations on what they should know have never been higher. And the amazing access we now have to information via the internet means that often, patients have more in depth knowledge of particular conditions than their GP."

A little knowledge is a wonderful thing, but one that should be exercised with caution. Training is not for nothing. We may have access to information on health care treatments, aspects of learning in teaching, knowledge of our rights in law. But that does not make us experts or able to place information within a meanigful context. Years of training and on the job experience go into becoming a good practitioner in professions. It's easy to become an "arm-chair expert" but it does not always tell the full story .

Don't be silly, OP.

People post about doctors because they're the one profession that everyone comes into contact with. The possession of a couple of hard-earned certificates does not confer infallibility so inevitably doctors make mistakes. And because of the nature of the profession, those mistakes can cost a lot in terms of health and wellbeing. So they are mistakes that are never forgotten

I have a lovely GP. Equally I have been seen by a GP who managed to confuse an ectopic pregnancy with cystitis. A dangerous and quite stupid mistake.

I have not seen any generic doctor bashing. Most doctors are held in respect. It is however necessary for patients to question misdiagnoses - how else can they get the correct or appropriate treatment?

The only issue I have with GPs is that their diagnoses are not reviewed. In every legal practice, decisions are reviewed and errors (of which there are many) are picked up. There is no mechanism for this in the NHS at GP level and therefore all the errors - which must by definition exist - do not get corrected unless the patient is persistent.

Therefore I think that scepticism is healthy and necessary. My own scepticism may have saved my life.