To wonder how many times GPs get it wrong, and risk someones life? for the sake of funds??

[lisad123]

Had a call from friend earlier today to say another friend of ours has a tumor on her spine. GP has fobbed her off for ages :(
Same happened with dh, and my gp misdiagonised gallstones and sadly i ended up very unwell.
DD2 we were told had a virus but instead she had pnemonia, and so spent a week in hospital.

Cancer seems to be the thing they miss most often, especially if you dont fit target age ect.
I always feel GPs dont refer or do tests because of funding and people are dying, getting very unwell because of it.

sometimes they do the opposite. My GP told me that my hormone imbalance (i have very high cortisol levels) very likely meant a tumour on my kidneys. Once I got to the specialist they laughed it off buy I worried for 6 weeks about surgery and all that.

a GP is a generalist, so i think they are often damned if they do or don't as they know alittle about everything iykwim

Now... the difficulty of getting a bloody appointment these days, that is their fault!!!

we dont have any trouble getting an appointment as they release 80% of appointments at 8am, so long as you can get though, you get an appointment for same day.

GPs (like all other doctors) have to complete Continuous Professional Development. Here's a link to the RCGP page which explains it.

It's hard to know how often GPs get it wrong through incompetence - sometimes conditions present in atypical ways and what they did to investigate might have been perfectly proper from a diagnostic pov, but take ages and seem totally unproductive from the worried patient's pov.

After 4 GP's surgery appointments and a home visit, I was told DD had 'maybe glandular fever' or 'some sort of virus'.

It was leukaemia. According to the hospital consultant, this is very common among GPs. It was only on my insistence on her being seen in hospital that she got this diagnosis several weeks after becoming ill.

You have to trust your instincts and not expect too much of GPs. I'm afraid I don't trust them now.

I read the referral letter my GP wrote and it said, "Mother thinks it may be leukaemia, but I'm inclined to think it's glandular fever."

So I diagnosed correctly and the GP got it very wrong.

Doesn't inspire confidence.

There is one doctor at a local practice who failed to diagnose cancer in two members of the same family. Will I see that GP - nooooooo

I know a doctor on the other end of the scale. A friends grandmother was told her cancer had 'most likely' come back and was referred to a specialist...to find out she had a broken rib. Another time the doctor told a lady I know she had had a minor stroke, sent her to hospital when actually, she had a tooth infection.

I think sometimes the pressure of having to see so many patients in one day can cause them to misdiagnose. But that's no reflection on any specific doctor, just my opinion. I've often been rushed out of an app and left to sort myself out whilst they access records for the next patient and although I realise they have a job to do, besides just seeing me, their daily 'quota' so to speak can be overloaded. I certainly don't think that helps.

The mark of a good GP is knowing when to refer a patient to a specialist. IME most of the GPs I have known about have been crap at this and consider most of the population to be idiots suffering with hypochondria.

YANBU, and dentists (in my dads experience) are just as bad.

My dad may well have still been alive if his incompetant dentist had done his job properly. :(

how is your dd now Earl? they missed dh leukaemia for over a year, and nearly killed him :( all they needed to have done was a simple blood test

When my ex saw his GP to express fears that he may have Aspergers - he was told, "Well, you certainly don't have that!"

He does - and was diagnosed privately some months later.

I was diagnosed with panic attacks by an over confident newly qualifies gp once.

I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism.

My Dad was given antibiotics for a chest infection - which was actually a heart attack.

He died two weeks later.

lisad - over a year? That is shocking! Hope he's well now.

My DD is fine thanks, although we still worry about late effects of the chemo & radiotherapy. She was diagnosed as a toddler and is now a strapping young lady

This thread is extremely worrying

It's really hard to know how to use the GP service now, isn't it?

I have a colleague who has recently had an operation, the specialist told her she couldn't understand why a GP hadn't picked up the problem ten years ago. My brother nearly died from appendisitus (which I can't spell ) when he was diagnosed by the same GP several times though when she saw a different one he did save his life.

I live in Scotland but if I didn't I would be extremely worried about GP commissioning as most of the time in my experience I have been referred for additional treatment only after I mention I have health insurance through my job.

I think getting it wrong is acceptable as long as action is taken and followed up.
What is NOT acceptable is reassurance /lack of action in the face of the patient being unwell . or lack of simple investigations to rule out serious things.
What is also bad is insinuating mothers are anxious when they are quite rightly concerned.
Disclaimer ..am not a GP

I mean misdiagnose

Yep a year and I made him go twice for bruises he got sick loads and he is never sick!! His doing well thanks x

My GP missed a problem with DD for 8 months when she was a baby.

7 GPs misdiagnosed DD when she was 8.

A midwife missed that DS1 was in trouble. He nearly died.

It is almost impossible to get an appointment on the day at our surgery and if you want to book in advance it could be 3 weeks away. I also hate how you have to tell the receptionist what is wrong.

I went to the GP 2 days after giving birth and told her I thought I had a DVT. I was dismissed with a prescription for antibiotics (and a lesson about over-population ). A week later I had to go privately to get a scan and (you guessed it) I had a DVT.

Gosh, let's all have a bash the gp session

I've had quite a few gps and all except one have been great. Generally they see a huge amount of people with a massive range of issues in a very small amount time. Occasionally they get it wrong but for the most part they do a difficult job incredibly well. I am constantly amazed by the amount of things they have to know and that they are generally expected to diagnose a possibly complex illness that may show in a variety of different forms in a ten minute appointment. Plus they have to put up with ungrateful members of the public day in day out. I certainly don't envy them.

I have just been diagnosed as having pneumonia after being fobbed off with "its a virus" for 3 weeks.

and at some of the stories on this thread.

To be fair though, I was referred immediately when I went in with a dodgy mole. It was fine but the appointment was through within a week. (different GP though).