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.

Off course GPs 'easily miss things' - lots and lots of conditions present with v non-specific symptoms and it is only as time passes that things reveal themselves.

Common (self-limiting) conditions are common, serious stuff is (thankfully) less common.
Should I investigate every febrile child for leukaemia?
It is easy to say with the restrospectoscopy 'I knew all along it was cancer'.

IME, the vast majority of what people will consider as bad care, is down to very poor communication: drs not explaining WHY they are doing or not doing whatever they are suggesting, not listening, but also in all honestly people not actually saying what is on their mind. If you are concerned that your child might have leukaemia, say it out loud. It IS going to change what I will suggest we do. "If she's better in 3 days, fine. If not, come back and we'll arrange for a blood test" rather than "I think this is a viral illness, continue Calpol, she'll be fine".

Day-to-day, funding does not really come into my decision making.
However I cannot change that my healthboard will no longer excise benign moles, operate on varicose veins and has started scrapping specialist nurses .

I think that they get it wrong a lot. Plus when they get it clearly wrong they are unrepentant and try to blame somebody else. I have no time for GPs anymore, I either go private for dc (cost an arm and a leg, but with health at stake and my very bad experiences with GPs the only way for me) and for myself and dh we tend to go to A&E if we are worried as our GP is overpaid, underworked and have the knowledge of a goat.

When ds1 was 5 I took him to the docotors 5 times within 3 days (one of those visits was actually a and e). The first four times I was told it was a virus and give him calpol and they treated me like I a paranoid mother. The fifth time they said as you keep coming back we will let the childrens ward have a look at him. He had pneumonia and pleural effusion and was in hospital for a week.
Six months later he got ill again but not as bad, gp said virus and I burst out crying and said I was not happy and explained what had happened last time so she sent him straight back to childrens ward. It was pneumonia again but caught early this time so he did not need to stay in just antibiotics.
You have to trust your instincts and keep makig a noise if you not happy

Maybe I'm lucky-been with the same practice since birth and couldn't fault any of the staff-GP or clerical/reception staff.
To be honest they seem to bend over backwards to help if you're in urgent need.
Our GP was incredible when my mum was ill-because the entire family is with the practice, she was up to date with what was happening with everyone and had a fair idea what we had on our plates at any given time.
This isn't a small practice either, it covers quite a highly populated area

People can tell their stories by all means, but I dislike readings statements like "GPs are overpaid morons".

And it is political, whether people like it or not.

Dikkertjedap you go to A&E if you like, but the doctors you see there may have only been qualified for a year. I worked in A&E for 9 months as a junior doctor, and I knew far less then than I know now.

Some of these accounts are sad and disturbing. However, the OP asked whether GPs risked people's lives for the sake of funds and not, I think, through incompetence or system failure.

I recall that (a good number of years ago) my GP aunt was reprimanded by her health authority because her drug expenditure was the second highest locally (her practice covered one of the poorest areas in a depressed Northern city). She refused to let this affect her prescribing pattern, saying she hadn't gone into medicine to give her patients second-rate treatment.

And she was able to inform my mother that the tablets which her 'lovely' GP had substituted for her previous ones, saying they were just as good, were in fact a poor - but cheaper - substitute, so that doctor had based his decision on cost alone.

I am sure matters have not improved in the intervening years (far from it), and that GPs will feel more obliged than ever to bow to financial pressure - to the detriment of their patients' health.

Anybody who is under the impression that private health care buys them better health care is sadly mistaken. Faster, yes. Better, no IME.
Yes, you are more likely to get whatever test it is you want, but not necessarily the test you need. And don't get me started on out-of-hours staffing in private hospitals.

Like I said, I am truly sorry to hear so many horrible stories. I wonder have those of you affected taken their grievances further?

And I agree with the 'keep making noise': if I don't hear from you, how do I know something's still wrong?

Pacific, my GP practice often doesn't know they've missed stuff, because I just go private and get it sorted out.

tbh i havent found private care any better when we have gone, and you all see the same doctors anyways, just quicker.

I had a peritonsilar abscess. I was told by two different docs that it was tonsillitis. On the third day I returned to the same surgery I insisted that I should be seen by ENT. Doc told me I was wasting his time and to present at A&E (because he didn't want to see me tomorrow). The on call ENT sorted me me out with incision, drainage and IV antibiotics. Luckily I kept going back because my airway was starting to become obstructed.

A few weeks later I had similar symptoms and I was convinced it was a reoccurrence. The ENT this time told me that it was just tonsillitis. Due to breast feeding a baby I was trying to avoid tonsillectomy. I suggested what he could do to see if I was right and he agreed and I was right he was wrong. Sometimes you can just feel what is going on with your body. Unfortunately after another episode i had no choice but to have the tonsillectomy.

I still have unresolved health problems and I have conflicting advice from GP's all the time. I've given up trying to work out the exact cause but I will be insisting on certain things from my own research given no one can tell me the problem. My theory is hormones are playing a part.....

Dazzle when you see any doctor anywhere they write to your GP.

And anyone who has in-patient private treatment is taking a fairly significant risk, trust me.

I'm certainly not saying things are that rosy in private health care, either; but you do get time to say your piece. And it is a second opinion. One of the many things I find weird, however, is that then nothing goes on your medical record, by and large. So as far as my GP practice is concerned, I never get ear infections. I am in fact quite prone to ear infections, but they are never picked up by the GP practice.

when my mum was having treatment for cancer her friend went private - her friend had the same disease and saw the same consultant, she waited longer in the waiting room on several occasions, had less tests and less after care. The outcome was sad in both cases and both died, but the private care was far outweighed by the NHS in actual treatment and care at hospital level, I was grateful my mum was by this time being treated by NHS in hospital rather than the private medical treatment

I couldn't agree more Pacific and MidsomerM. I almost died in a private hospital a few years ago due to the absense of out of hours staff and the woeful lack of knowledge of the one doctor they did have.

The system is far from perfect but it's still good. I think you just have to trust your hunch and speak up if really worried.

Midsomer, my experience over many years is different. Don't understand why.

I am not a GP but work with GPs and am amazed at the scope of their job. I have developed a huge amount more respect for what they do since beginning this job. Yes there are some rubbish ones, most of those I know are good and some are excellent but none are infallible and nor should any human be exoected to be.

Human bodies are amazingly individual so not only are GPs dealing with a vast range of ailments they are also dealing with a range of patients who may respond differently to things both physically and emotionally. I think they do a very difficult job, mostly very well.

I am a great believer in small practices, my experience is that the more GPs you have in a practice, the harder it is to get appointments, see a particular GP and feel satisfied with the service. My family are registered at a one doctor practice where we never wait more than a day for an appointment, emergencies are always seen the same day, prescriptions ordered in the morning are collected in the afternoon and the staff are lovely.

Actually, Pacific, I recently had to have two kidney ops. I was covered by my DH's private health insurance, so could have gone to one of our local private hospitals to have them done pdq. Everyone thought how fortunate I was to have this option - BUT I have another serious condition which could have given rise to complications so felt much safer entrusting my clapped-out old bod to the NHS, even though I had to wait much longer and had the first procedure cancelled the afternoon before surgery.

Dazzle, If you're seeing doctors privately who aren't communicating with your GP, then that is very poor practice. You should definitely ask them to keep your GP up to date.

I have a lot more respect for my vet tbh.

GPs these days can't even diagnose properly. It's easy to just refer for scans etc. there's no skill in it anymore.

Hidden, do you know my salary? And what makes you think I'm a moron?

Hidden you really don't know what you're talking about. Do you have any medical qualifications?

Midsomer, honestly, it's been the case with innumerable private docs over many years.