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.

Death rates would be good.

My gp gave me the wrong antibiotics for my polynephritis

Two parts to this story...

New GP registration system tested
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15554554

New NHS Board will help patients 'shop around' for GP
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15471034

The receptionists at my own gp's are also lovely

I am so sorry to hear all of your bad experiences - even more so if they led to more suffering than necessary or even death.

When doctors overinvestigate, they can do harm.
When they underinvestigate, they can do harm.

Realising when to leave alone and when to look further, therein lies the Art of Medicine IMO.
And it is scary. I am well aware of the responsibility I carry. And I can assure you, I do my very best. And I constantly learn, refresh and train.

Have I ever made mistakes? Yes.
Have I ever killed/maimed somebody? Not to my knowledge. But for the grace of god...

I am not defending incompetence - there is no excuse.
However, the vast majority of drs work v hard, have their patients best interests at heart and are deeply affected by mistakes.

Do I get frustrated by inadequacies of the system? You betcha.

Not sure why I posted on this thread tbh.
And why are GPs singled out for the wholesale rubbishing??

BTW, my own GP is bloody brilliant IMHO. He set my mum for urgent tests "just in case" as a routine blood test for something else showed her to be anaemic. She had no other symptoms whatsoever & yet the tests showed that she actually did have bowel cancer, of which anaemia can be a symptom. His attention to detail quite possibly saved her life.

Am really shocked (and quite saddened) at some of your experiences though. I totally understand why those "GP bashers" amongst you feel the way you do!

Thanks for those links, Quietly. Not sure if it'll be possible to compare GPs' performance, though?

The thing about general practice is that it's enormously variable. The King's Fund did a report into the quality of general practice recently that's quite interesting - I'm too knackered to look it up now but it'll be on their site if anyone's interested. GP practices are individual small businesses that all run in their own sweet way, so you can get an excellent practice a few streets away from a very hit and miss one. Or a group practice where you know one of the docs is great but wouldn't touch his or her partner with a bargepole. Then there's access - some practices have sorted their systems out so people can get an appointment when they need one, some act as if they are holding back the deluge and if they don't make it incredibly difficult to see the GP, they'll be drowning in patients.

Keeping skills up to date is a huge issue. The General Medical Council has been trying to get 'revalidation' in place for a decade but the profession keeps buggering around and delaying it. At the moment there's nothing to stop an incompetent GP carrying on and no way patients can know whether theirs is any good or not. Until the day you find out yours has missed something very serious... having said that of course there are lots of very good, very hard working doctors. But there's a lot that could be done to improve the systems they work within and to weed out the worse ones.

It seems odd to call discussion of a system 'wholesale rubbishing' of individuals, or 'GP bashing'.

All systems have problems, some have really serious problems which need urgently to be sorted out.

My GP surgery really are great. Obviously it has the usual problems, slightly sharp and unfriendly reception staff, trouble getting appointments etc, but the drs' all seem to care and have no problem referring you to specialists, the nurses all seem to remember you from the babies jabs and are so friendly. There is always a really good selection of magazines in the waiting room too :o

The OOH service however I think is really lacking. They have been unfriendly on the phone (implying I was a neurotic mother for calling about my 3m old with a temp of 40.6, calling DH a time waster because he wanted me seen as I wasn't very responsive, high temp, unable to stand etc) then having the Dr diagnose a flu virus when I had a raging pelvic infection presenting symptoms of sepsis in the hip, that the nurse diagnosed immediately the next day. I will not bother with OOH again

My old doctor who told me that I was "wasting her time" after I'd been referred for high blood pressure by two nurses as they couldn't repeat my pill prescription as it was too high and there were no doctors on sight. Both nurses told me they were convinced it was nothing to worry about and it was white coat syndrome. (I was shaking like a leaf as usual in a place of medicine).

My doctors response to this? "There's no such thing as white coats hypertension." Her bedside manner left a lot to be desired.

Yes its trivial, but it didn't exactly do a lot for my doctor phobia...

...I hope she has since read the latest guidance on the subject.

I dread to think what she is like about other conditions.

This thread is very annoying. I'm a GP. I've just got home, after a normal 13 hour day.

Hiddenhome your statement is offensive and a gross generalisation.

Dazzle I can assure you that these days GPs have a full enquiry if someone stubs their toe on the door frame of the surgery toilet, never mind if something goes seriously wrong. We are drowning in meetings, audits, appraisals, proof of continuing education, proof of reflection, discussion of significant events etc etc.

And regard registering with GPs out of your catchment area - what do you think happens when you need a home visit, and the GP has to spend 2 hours driving to and from your house? Who sees the patients at the surgery?

We are under HUGE pressure to save money. Since the Tories began their campaign to destroy the NHS, we have effectively been told that if we don't reduce our referral rate our surgeries will be shut down. So if you want to have a moan, write to your MP, and whatever you do don't vote conservative!

Of course there are bad doctors, as there are inadequate people in all jobs. But the vast majority of us are good hard working people who went into the job to help, and are being battered to death by an increasingly demanding system.

Dogwood I think GP's come in for such rubbishing because they are being used at the gatekeepers for access to the rest of the NHS. That's not how it should be. I accept they have a tough job and I think the system is terrible. My GP friends talk about how they have persisent patients with chronic conditions for which there is no cure just management but those patients keep requesting appointments. The people who go once or twice year when they urgently need help can't get an appointment. There has to be a better way

I've had some very good GPs. I've also had some very bad ones. And a family friend, in his 40s, who had smoked since his teens went to his GP with a persistent cough. We all suspected cancer. The GP prescribed antibiotics. After no improvement and much cajoling, the GP prescribed more antibiotics. We all knew it was cancer. I was 16 FFS and I knew it was cancer. Eventually cancer of the larynx was diagnosed and treatment started but it was too late. He died on his bathroom floor in a coughing fit and was found by his 14 year old son. That was a GP acting as a bad gatekeeper. This is a man who hadn't been to a dr in years. When he went, it was because he was seriously ill. Everyone who knew him could see it. The GP couldn't (or wouldn't).

Are patients informed if there is an enquiry about their care?

And did you know that most GPs have 2000 patients on their list, per GP? So when you're thinking about you you you, remember there are 1999 other people having the same thought and wanting the same attention.

I absolutely loathe it when we run out of appointments.
How many patient should 1 dr reasonably see per day?
Where is the funding going to come from?
If I see 50+ patients/day, how much time do I spend with each individually?

And no, I don't earn quarter of a million - I cannot remember the last time a new story offended me as much as that figure quoted a couple of years ago .

Not sure if it'll be possible to compare GPs' performance, though?

I've got the impression its going to be a lot like the NHS choices thing for hospitals which does include that type of information. I think it will be a good while before the system is up and running though.

For the record, the new GP we have, seems great. My DH had to go a couple of weeks ago, and they have gone out of their way to cover all bases. This is the other doctor in the catchment area which is full and we had to beg to join. Can't think why its full...

My experience is also that GPs easily miss things. When I was pg and feeling very nauseous I was prescribed an anti-emetic medicine which could cause foetal abnormalities, despite me having a big discussion with the GP that I would only consider taking something if it was safe for the baby. Goof thing I googled...

My nephew?s asthma was missed despite it being obvious to anyone the way he was wheezing - he ended up having to go to the hospital the day as he wasn't given the appropriate medication.

The list can go on... The thing is that it is probably very difficult to do a GPs job properly when you have less than 10 minutes for each appointment, and have all those administrative, rather than medical, targets to fulfil. Sadly, it will probably be even worse when GPs will have a bigger responsibility for the budget and which medicines should be available on the NHS.

Dazzle, it depends on the circumstances. If a patient or relative has made a complaint, then they will be informed of the outcome of the complaint in the reply they receive. If no complaint has been made, but it comes to light that an error has been made, then the discussion and review is likely to be internal, with the patient only being contacted if they have expressed a desire to know what the outcome is.

And regard registering with GPs out of your catchment area - what do you think happens when you need a home visit, and the GP has to spend 2 hours driving to and from your house? Who sees the patients at the surgery?

2 miles away? Seriously. There are parts of within catchment area which are further than that. There are parts in that catchment area that are further than that.

Get a grip. People have complaints and they are valid and should be listened to.

AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - LOSE THE POLITICAL CLAPTRAP. They are all as bad as each other and have all done enough damage.

If you don't like the thread, just leave.

I think recent media reports have shown it's best never to make a complaint, though. So we can't find out if a review of our own care has been done, presumably.

these are opinions and experiences, they arent personal attacks. At end of the day these are peoples lifes that GPs deal with and while most get it right, sadly when its wrong its very dangerous.

Not sure why I posted on this thread tbh.
And why are GPs singled out for the wholesale rubbishing??

Your not singled out - teachers are your companions. The reason you both get wholesale rubbishing is due to the fact that everyone has come in contact with both, all - nearly all of us went to school and probably have dc that went to school. All of us come into contact several times in our lives with gp's either for ourselves or our relatives

so we all have stories to tell - some good, some bad.

not many other jobs/employment that so many people have a lot of contact with through there lives....traffic wardens..?

Well the GP did miss my dad's cancer for months. He insisted there was nothing wrong and flatly refused a referral. We paid for a private referral and scans but by then it was too late. The scan that the GP finally agrees ti was for shortly after he died. The GP did admit to having made mistakes.

Our surgery is good but on-the-day appointments are usually with trainees / locums. It is rare to see the same one twice, so no continuity if care. To see a partner/permanent doctor you have to book 2-3 weeks in advance. This is not ideal and not the fault of the "same day" doctors but I do wonder if they would spot problems without knowing the medical history?

Well the GP did miss my dad's cancer for months. He insisted there was nothing wrong and flatly refused a referral. We paid for a private referral and scans but by then it was too late. The scan that the GP finally agrees ti was for shortly after he died. The GP did admit to having made mistakes.

Our surgery is good but on-the-day appointments are usually with trainees / locums. It is rare to see the same one twice, so no continuity if care. To see a partner/permanent doctor you have to book 2-3 weeks in advance. This is not ideal and not the fault of the "same day" doctors but I do wonder if they would spot problems without knowing the medical history?