GP really arsey

[sukysue]

Well aibu? took dd1 to gp for emergency appt to get antibiotics for cellulitis on her leg following insect bites . She is away at uni and is registered there now not at the home surgery but of course she is home now.Anyway she had to register as a temporary patient to see the gp today. When we went in she gave dd the antibiotics straight away within about 1 minites consultation it was 5 o'clock and we were the last patient waiting. She was on emergency surgery till 6.30. So while we were there I said to her oh dr could you please prescribe my dd some duac for her acne. She went on about how it was an emergency appt and that it wasn't really the time and place to ask for that,she then went on to say I have been here for 3 hours in surgery and I have had a terrible day . By the time she had finished moaning and being arsey if she had just given her the bloody duac we would have been gone already I explained that we wouldn't be going back any time soon as she was in uni and this was to prevent a waste of ours and their time getting an appt just for the duac,honestly we never go to the gp . I was very nice to her thanked her very much and creep arsed around her but it has really upset me to be honest it was such a little thing to ask of her there was no need for her to treat us like that. I just feel really deflated at her attitude. I wish I could do just a four and a half hour shift.

[Flobbadobs]

When I dealt with repeat prescriptions it was always just a note requesting the meds handed in at reception. If she explains when she makes her request before the end of term that she needs enough to cover her holidays when she's back at home she should be covered. She should only see a doctor about them if they need to do a meds review I think.
Honestly when I read threads like this I see why my former boss phased out his drop in clinic! If everyone had a "just one more thing" episode the surgery would never close...

[MojitoMagnet]

YABVU.

One appointment one problem is vital to enable the GPs to keep their heads above water, which they are only just managing as it is. They are very stretched.

It is not a waste of either their time or yours for you to make a separate appointment for a separate issue.

Appointment slot times (usually 10 minutes for an ordinary appointment, 5 minutes for an emergency) are based on the average time needed, but in actuality they take a range of times. The ones which can actually be dealt with in 2 minutes are a blessing, because they allow the GP to catch up from the fact that some take longer - like the time my son was in for a 5 minute emergency appointment which actually took 20 minutes and ended in being collected from the surgery by ambulance. Those spare 3 minutes which you didn't need from your emergency appointment can be spent way more valuably by you getting out of the room quick than by you trying to fit in another non-urgent issue.

The workload of a surgery will be projected based on the number of people registered with various assumptions made about their health and the number of medical issues that may arise on average. It is right and appropriate to make a proper separate appointment for a non-urgent thing. If they can deal with it in 2 minutes that's brilliant, it will mean 8 minutes less of running-late for everyone else with appointments later that day - where 30 minute delay between appointment time and actual time seen is not uncommon, often due to people with quickly-resolved issues not getting out of the room when they should but instead saying "oh one more thing".

[Groovee]

OP I do think YABU. Your daughter should have arranged her medication before she came home at the surgery she is registered with.

That is truly laughable. My cousin is a business manager for 10 practices. None of the permies do any home visits. They are outsourced to private providers.

All our GP's in our practice do home visits. I've often seen various GP's in our area parking their cars and going into a nearby home carrying their dr's bags and a set of notes. We're classed as a big practice with 10 GP's and they often have locums in too. But the locums only do the emergency surgeries.

[Wuxiapian]

I lived in Switzerland for a couple of years, and while I love the UK, the healthcare system was definitely better over there.

[Delayingtactic]

I too am amazed by 'abroad' being so wonderful. Are we talking about America? Surely not as for huge swathes of the population healthcare is unaffordable and patients die from conditions that could be managed here in the UK. Certainly in my home country there are some wonderful things about state provided healthcare but there are heaps of conditions which can't be treated properly because of funding issues.

[gasman]

This thread has made me really cross.

The appropriate thing for the university aged daughter to do would have been to arrange an appropriate supply of anti-acne drugs prior to leaving university to go home for the summer. Asking any GP to prescribe routine medication without access to your medical records is putting them in a difficult position. To do that in an emergency TR slot is really, rude.

WRT healthcare in other countries I am fascinated at how Australia is being touted as amazing: friends I have who GP out there feel the system is really unsafe as people can visit several GPs and thus no one person has all their information leading to a huge risk of polypharmacy and drug interactions. They have also commented on over investigation in the private secondary care sector.

Secondly, "specialists" in europe have much less experience than UK Consultants. A paediatric specialist will only have done 3 or 4 years. A UK GP will usually have done 6 months paeds in hospital and more in their year long GP based training time whereas a UK Consultant will have 8 years of training. It is like comparing apples and oranges. I think people just quite like the glamour of seeing the "specialist". I'm also always amused at how patients always see "the top man".

I work all the time with surgeons and while I know who I like personally, who consults/communicates well and lastly who can actually cut well (these things are usually not always done well by the same person) I really don't know on what criteria you decide someone is the "top man"...

[cory]

LondonMan Sat 13-Jul-13 08:12:37
"It's not GPs fault, but what this thread highlights is that the NHS provides a crap service, from a patient perspective. Anyone who has experience of living abroad is used to much better."

Wouldn't that depend on where you lived? Or is Abroad one homogenous country with one perfectly working system?

Fwiw I have experienced very good care in Sweden- and absolutely crap care, the latter including a GP who claimed to be unable to tell me when chickenpox ceases to be contagious. (In the end, I had to dictate the letter she wrote to the insurance company as she was so clueless.)

I spoke to a relative in Canada the other day about a medical problem we share: she told me she had had to fight really hard to find a doctor prepared to use a less invasive method (a simple pessary) than operation. Of course the doctor would have been paid more for the operation which is why he was so dismissive of the non invasive treatment. In the end, she managed to get hold of another doctor.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Yabu (sorry)

I do feel for your daughter though. I had the exact same thing last year,only I left it quite some time before going to the Dr's (I'm stupid) and they most certainly did fit me in when there was no real slot. They definitely were not interested in anything other than the cellulitis I'd been incubating for almost 2 weeks. Zero interest whatsoever. I don't think they would have even entertained speaking with me about anything else.

I hope your daughter feels better soon.

[AmandaPandtheTantrumofDoom]

Maybe not, but unless we're basing it on stats not anecdotes, I have no idea whose experience is more common. could be your version or mine. I was just saying don't assume what's normal based on stories, because my assumption of normal on that basis would be the polar opposite.

[KobayashiMaru]

Lucky you. It doesn't seem that way for most people.

[AmandaPandtheTantrumofDoom]

I am in the UK. I can call my doctors at 9am and have a 90% chance of a same day appt, if not the day after. The only difference is that I have to book a double if I have lots of things to talk about.

Yes, there are issues in some areas of the UK, but don't assume it's the same everywhere. The situation I described has applied with the last 4 practices I have been registered with - i.e. my whole adult life.

[KobayashiMaru]

Emergency appts are just regular appts in a totally fucked up system that sees people waiting a month for a regular appt. It;s all a huge mess, you're just so used to it you can't tell anymore.
I'm not in the uk. I can call my drs at 9am and have a 90% chance of a same day appt, if not, then the day after for sure. I can get 10 different things done if I like. Thats how it should be.

[MamaChubbyLegs]

YANBU to be deflated by her attitude. She was unprofessional and rude, which is unnecessary.
YANBU to be cheeky and ask for a prescription.
YABU to expect her to do it or assume what kind of shift she had had.

She WNBU to refuse.
She WBU to handle the situation so unprofessionally.

I would not even dream of moaning to a patient or relative about my day.

[SarahBumBarer]

At most surgeries "emergency" appts are NOT for emergencies. For "emergencies" you go to A&E. The clue is in the "E"

Emergency GP appts (not many GP's do anything with genuine emeregencies otrher rhan call an ambulance or send you off to A&E) are simply standard appts but given out on the day for people who can't wait the ridiculous length of time necessary for a standard appt. So if you have a niggling back pain that you've put up with for a few months and finally decide to see about it you wait for a standard appt; if otoh you wake up one day with a sudden acute symptom you would call and get an on the day (so called emergency) appt. But let's be hones - we're not usually talking life or death situations here. And students people away from home have no option but to get emeegency/temp resident appts. It is the system which is crap.

As for how to improve it? I don't know - I only see front of house. As a start stop being so defensive, Send someone to one of the countries where it does work better, watch and learn!

[Notyourdaughtersnickname]

Sorry OP but YABU,

An emergency appointment is for emergencies. Not to "top-up" regular medication.

It gets very wearing to have a long list of so-called "emergencies" only to find you're prescribing hayfever medicines and cough mixture for most of the day. Coughs, colds, hayfever, acne, not really an emergency.

[KobayashiMaru]

Read the second post, not the first. Thats the one I'm talking about. It certainly reads like the 2nd prescription was given.

[Wabbitty]

KobayashiMaru read it again. The OP says "when we went in we were given the antibiotics straightaway within about 1 minutes consultation". The OP then goes on to say that whilst they were there she then asked for the gel (Duac) for the acne. Can't be much clearer than that.

[piprabbit]

At our surgery Emergency appointments are for when you can't wait for a standard booking (usually two weeks) - but you can't specify who you see.

Standard appointments are 5 mins long and are for one issue only. We are advised to book a double appointment if we have more to discuss.

[KobayashiMaru]

not how I read it, but only OP can tell us.

[ImagineJL]

I try not to deal with multiple add-on "while I'm here Dr" problems if I can, for one simple reason.

If I spend longer than the allotted time with a patient, the next patient has to wait. If they too have several problems, the third patient waits even longer, and so on. By the end of the session I can be running an hour late, and no one is happy then.

How does that make me entitled, jobs-worth and lazy, as some have suggested?

Obviously there are times when the 4th problem is the most serious and has to be addressed there and then, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I would be interested to hear any suggestions for a way the system could be run enabling patients to have as long as they want, without inconveniencing subsequent patients. We are always reviewing our appointment system in response to suggestions and satisfaction questionnaires, so I'd be very happy to hear any ideas.

[LIZS]

yabvu , and inappropriate. An emergency appointment is just that , a one off for something which cannot wait. Did your dd even ask you to discuss her acne ? Has she had that medication before (and therefore would have a tear off slip for repeats) and as she is presumably over 18 she may well have had other medications, or reactions to, which she may need to notify a gp of first, but perhaps not in front of you .

[Wabbitty]

Yes KoboyashiMaru - antibiotics for the cellulitis and after a consultation.

[expatinscotland]

YABU.

[SarahBumBarer]

Responding to an earlier point - we are not paying anything for DD's care in Italy because we pay exactly what an Italian would pay - ie zero. Again the Uk has this myth that we are the only country with good social health care. We base this on the fact that the US healthcare system is about the only one most Brits know anything about and conveniently for our national superiority complex it is about the only system in the developed world that is worse than hours. Most first world countries have Universal health care, many tax funded with similar or lower tax rates to our own (eg Italy) or part tax/part employer insurance funded and still maintain higher living standards/lower taxes (eg Australia). It is seen as practically traitorous to criticise the NHs but it SHOULD and COULD do better - especially the GPs. What's more we should demand it. Free at the point of delivery is NOT free!

[KobayashiMaru]

the second message says " it literally took her 1 min to do it" whch to to me suggests she gave the prescription.