To be shocked but not surprised by the programme on channel 4 on GPs??

[Daydreaming]

Just warching the investigation on channel four. Yes, I know there are lots of great, hardworking GPs out there, but it's not acceptable that there are many bad ones out there.

A while ago I had some worrying symptoms, and a GP I saw was completely dismissive. And then I saw someone different who was completely different and took my concerns seriously and investigated them.

Frightening and depressing programme but I'm not convinced anyone who has the power to do anything about it is prepared to act. The Department of Health, the NHS and the medical profession are all distracted by the government's NHS reforms. The government doesn't give a toss as long as the NHS is privatised.

A lot of lip service is paid to patient safety but actually it is very far from a priority - as you can see from the fact that an MOT for doctors has been talked about for the best part of two decades but still hasn't been brought into force. GMC doesn't know its arse from its elbow. They have recently decided to hold fitness to practice hearings without involving the patients who have suffered at the hands of incompetent doctors, btw. And when they recently advertised for patient reps, they made it so difficult to apply that I suspect they were deliberately trying to put people off - either that or they are just as incompetent at recruitment as they are at getting rid of dangerous doctors.

Everyone involved knows that out of hours services are crap and dangerous - some are OK most of the time but the quality control just isn't there to make sure terrible mistakes aren't made. But they do fuck-all about it. So people die.

I suspect the majority of crap GPs are a leftover from the old training scheme whereby they simply had to mark time for 4 years and submit a couple of videos at the end to qualify.

These days you have to complete an entry exam prior to even getting an interview for GP training. This weeds out all the candidates from overseas who submit 'interesting' CVs.

During training, you cannot now qualify without gaining the MRCGP exam.

i haven't watched the programme but suspect it wouldn't surprise me at all.
i have lost two of my gps in the last 10 years - one was sacked after a court case where he was found to be negligent and patient concerned sued the pct.second left to work abroad.also at same practice we had issues with out of hours care - they promised to come out and home visit one night but didn't.i was advised by receptionist to complain in writing to practice and the ooh company lost the contract.
btw my doctor's surgery is perfectly respectable and has a good reputation afaik.

Problems is gps have to know about everything from the common cold to terminal cancer and everything in-between. With them having such a range then Unfortunatly they will always be prone to error, they are only human after all.

Not right but almost understandable.

Friend of mine going through this at present.

Blew the whistle in the summer--GP was a liability and his practice unsafe. Informed the Local Trust who "dealt with it" allowing him back to work under supervision after 3 months and then to retire last week.
The result is that the GP has reported her to the NMC in a "tit for tat" move. She thought she would be protected by the investigating panel -but in reality she has been thrown to the wolves.

they all stick together doha - read dr phil hammonds book.very funny but parts are very sad.

my heart goes out to the parents of joseph and feel their composure was to be admired

Jacks of all trades, Masters of none, springs to mind re G.P.s. Have experienced incompetence from hospital docs too though..... and we have spent literally years in and out of hospitals with my DS.

I went to out of hours at the weekend due to continuing throat/cough ( had pneumonia so need to be careful). My temp has been up a bit but not raging. Nurse practitioner sticks thermometer in my ear incorrectly an dtells me my temp is 36.5! (Eh no it wasn't was 38! Checked before I left and after returning home with and ear thermometer and a tempadot like they use in hospital) I did point out that she didn't have the thing in my ear properly, the sensor was against my ear canal not facing towards my eardrum. She was nost dipleased that I pointed this out, asked if I was a nurse or something and trie dto convince me of the accuracy of the silly thing. Our hospital have stopped using timpanics becasue they are so inaccurate!. Grrrr on behalf of anyone who has the misfortune of having to be seen by a doc and who does not have any medical knowledge themselves...............xx

One of the consultations they filmed showed a woman being fobbed off with Lansaprole which seems to be the new "opiate" (sic) for just about everything you go to GP with. I'm seeing a consultant privately tomorrow, desperately worried about symptoms, my GP's referral letter showed she had not listened to half the things I'd said, no wonder she'd just given me the tablets - if I hadn't made a fuss and had private healthcare god knows where I'd end up - even now I am worried what difference the 10 week wait might have made. Heartbreaking stories on the programme, and no wonder this country has such poor cancer survival rates

I've luckily had good experiences bar once but it was understandable in my case. I went in with what I thought was an ear infection

No sign of infection but jaw and chewing hurt, they said I had a disjointed door

After a few days I went to the walk in centre to be told I had tonsilitis. I knew this was crap and my face was swelling

Went back to GP and diagnosed with mumps. It was understandable that it was not diagnosed at first because the swelling had yet to arrive, but still mildly annoying as when I had been around kids etc thinking I had a bad jaw I was actually at my most contagious. Generally I have found my practice fantastic and there is a married couple there who I always ask for one or the other.

ime some GPs have no idea if you haven'tgot something that is very common. But the best GP's I have had are those who say they don't know what is wrong, but refer on.

I have had brilliant GP's and awful ones.

What is the programme actually called?

I read some research a few years ago showing that some GPs in poorer areas had very poor practice, but got away with it because people who complained didn't do so effectively and it is difficult to fill gps vacancies in poorer areas.

Personally my experience has been that in poorer areas you either have amazing gps who are there because they want to work in poorer aeas or they are awful.

Have to agree with Lesley33.
There are some very good GP's working in despived areas who do an excellent job with health promotion/disease prevention. Unfortunatly there are also the ones who the patients think of as "God" and would be scared to question their judgement.
Sirzy, GP's know a lot about most medical subjects but are not experts. they cannot be expected to know everything. But they should have the balls to admit this and refer to the experts when in doubt.

Agree - they don't need to know everything, but they do need to know when to refer.

I hope this sudden media focus on 'bad' GPs isn't a prelude to another jolly government wheeze re NHS changes. I don't want GPs to be commissioning services - I don't want the NHS to be privatised at all - but if it does get dismantled, I suppose I would rather it was the GPs doing the commissioning than some number cruncher in an office.

It has always surprised me that the government says the GPs are to do the commissioning, because they're not very biddable as a group, and presumably those who believe in the NHS will subvert the intention of the 'reforms' by sending people to NHS hospitals, in order to keep them viable.

Some GPs are already using the reforms to exploit patients. Daily Telegraph had a story this week about a practice in Yorkshire that wrote to all the patients on the waiting list for minor skin procedures, saying 'The PCT isn't funding this stuff any more, but you can go private' and listed four private providers - including their own company. Appalling. If they want to do private work on the side, they are free to do so, but not force NHS patients to pay for care from their own NHS GPs, FFS!

PCT claimed the GPs were lying as well, and some of the procedures are still available...

yes, daydreaming, at least 2 of the doctors shownneed to find different careers.