To wonderwhy the GP feels he hasto ask loads of personal intrusive lifestyle questions?

[AtYourCervix]

ANd then do nothing with the answers?

Why make me uncomfortable by weighing me and making me highlight my hazardous habits and then do nothing about it?

What's the point?

If I was offered advice about reducing my vast fatness or something I could understand but why just tap it into the computer and ignore it?

HUMPH.

Why do you need advice on weight loss from your GP? There's oodles of advice on the internet and in various other places.

GP's have to monitor their patients health, it's their job.....

crystalglasses do you actually believe the rubbish you're spouting? I thought only the most ignorant Daily Mail readers believed all the nonsense they print about GP earnings!

Actually GPs are NOT paid according to the number of patients asked a specific question, and if fact weight has never yet been part of QOF (the Quality Outcomes Framework), although it may be soon. However, each year the government sets targets like, for example, that we record the smoking status of 90% of our patients with chronic diseases; if we reach the target, we get the payment (which equates to a few pence (love your £20 idea though!!) per registered patient). If not, we don't. It is one of the several ways GP practice income is generated, and it is very controversial among GPs; the idea is that we will then act on the information, but of course it cannot always work like that when we are also expected to do 101 other things in our 10 minute consultations.

More importantly we should be checking blood pressure on a regular basis (regardless of the points), and asking about diet, smoking and alcohol consumption because we are caring for each patient as a whole person, not as a sore toe or a cough; it IS directly relevant to their overall health. It is opportunistic screening to raise people's awareness of their potential health issues as well as sometimes directly tackling these problems.

As for GP earnings you are FAR from the mark. Actual AVERAGE GP income is much less than your invented £150K, and for it we work very very hard.

I said it was a simplistic explanation about how income is generated. It's very complex and I was trying to explain the model of payment. I know that £150 is not the average but it is certainly earned by lots of GPs I know. AND GPs aren't the only group who work very very hard but they are the only ones who run businesses that have a guaranteed source of income and don't have to worry about redundancies and bankruptcies, by and large. I am a cynic and I don't read the Daily Mail.

'GP's have to monitor their patients health, it's their job.....
'

Yes, and yours is to shut the biscuit tin.

Did I say they didn't?

Sorry Mondog I mthought that remark was aimed at me

No.

I thought antihistamine were mild steroids and therefore likely to slightly increase your weight?

Maybe that was why he was checking?

Went and checked - antihistamines have an association with weight-gain but cause and effect is not proved yet.

You are being unreasonable just because you're contradicting yourself. You say that you don't want to be asked 'personal questions' (he's your GP!!! it doesn't get much more personal) and that if you were offered advice about losing weight you would cry, but at the same time want to be given a leaflet or something. You know that you are overweight. You know it causes health problems. Unless you have additional problems that could be causing it, putting less in than you exercise out is a good start.

It is a bit box-ticky, but he also records in on your medical record so the next time you come in, he can immediately see your general health profile and be able to help you more easily. What's wrong with that?

OP, you are, by your own admission, obese, and unmotivated to change that. Your GP's responsibility is to, at the very least, monitor your health.

Enough of the whining, already. Thank your lucky stars you do not live in the US, where you would not gain access to health care at all. And you are mithering on about a GP asking you a few questions about your general health. Shame on you. Shame on your sense of entitlement.

The one thing that really really made me angry at the doctors surgery was when the Nurse wnted to measure me to record my height.

I am 5ft I am a shortarse, I wear turn ups in my knickers, I come from a long line of vertically challenged ladies, I know I am 5ft I have been 5ft since my teens and I will never grow any taller, I havent yet reached the age when I may start shrinking.

But NO I cant have 5ft ( or whatever the metric thingy is now) recorded on my medical records unless some Nurse OFFICIALLY measures me.

I asked her if she thought I was lying about my height, maybe I am actually 5ft 8 but dont want to admit it, or maybe she thinks I am so stupid that I have managed to get into quite advanced adult hood without knowing how tall I am.

I told her to put 5ft or nothing but she was not going to measure me
she didnt ask to weigh me - dont think she dared.

sorry to any Nurses who have been told to do this but it is bloody offensive

Blimey offensive why?

It's amazing the things people get offended about.

YOU may know your height but I'm pretty sure there are people out there who swear they are a certain height/weight/blood group/whatever and it turns out they are not accurate.

It makes sense to let the professional make simple checks and record them instead of taking people's word for it.

I would have sworn I was 5 ft 4 but apparently I'm 5ft 3. Also, they record it in centimetres so me saying 5ft 4 was no good anyway

some people are such whiners. Boo, it's so annoying having a free health service that just want to get your details accurate so they can assess your health better...

I used to be 5ft 4 but I lost an inch when I hit 40 Lol

I'm only 25

AND I think I've gone down a shoe size

I'm like Alice in fucking WOnderland

ah this so gets my goat, whinging about people taking your height? ffs, count your bloody chickens while they are still there.

You won't be worrying about intrusive Gp questions when you have to pay for each GP session, like I had to to in Paris, over 20 years ago. And all they did was to refer me to a specialist, because they refused to take any responsibility for my care. So I still paid for that consultation, and then paid for the specialists. Despite the the fact my only issue was getting a prescription for eczema, which I had always had. Oh, no, I had to be referred to a bloody dermatogist, who, surprise, surprise, gave me my prescription. So, 50 quid later, (20 years ago) I got some betnovate. Hurrah!

All to illustrate how fucking lucky we are right now.

Ahhh but what if said person counted the chickens and their GP still wanted to count them personally?

I cannot believe you got cross because the nurse wanted to measure your height. Height does change, you know, it can be important in diagnosis.
What a waste of energy.