to expect a GP NOT to have to google

[Justforlaughs]

a vasectomy! or "anbesol"?
I was talking to a friend about the GPs at our local surgery and she mentioned a new doctor who had had to Google a "vasectomy" when her husband asked about having one. He didn't know whether the patient was eligible, what the process involved and any possible complications.
I then went to the GP and saw a male doctor, who I had never seen before (and have ASSUMED, rightly or wrongly, but due to a process f elimination, not unreasonably, that it was the same one) because DD had mouth ulcers. I asked whether I should use Anbesol or similar - and he had never heard of it.
Now, I don't GPs to be infallable, or to have detailed knowledge of every possible diagnosis and medication available, but surely both of these should be pretty standard knowledge. So AIBU to wonder where he trained?? and what grade of degree he got?? (Not that I think it's relevant, but just in case anyone else wonders - due to my question about where he trained - he is White British)

Oh I aways look up vesectomys just so I can prove in the main they will only need 24-48 hours off work if non manual and no complication...not 7 days... Then the need for a repeat test, althought my story about one of my friends who dh nearly left her on her 4th pregnancy after his vesectomy...left him very red face he hadn't had the repeat test....

I think it is likely the GP would have been looking up local guidelines and if they haven't heard of ambesol then reasonable to look that up too.
As a GP I often look things up in front of patients. As many others have already said there is no way anyone in any job can know everything abouth that job.
It is far more important and less dangerous to be aware of the limitations of your knowledge and check than assume you know everything.

Oh forgot so say! abesol or anusol? I know anusol! Lol

Did you see it was Google?

Bet he was actually typing "AIBU think you shouldn't go to the GPs for Anbesol?"

My GP has given me links to look at in my own time (after giving me a diagnosis.) And I remember a previous GP looking up something in a reference book before everyone had computers. Although none of that is as good as the one who drew me a diagram of my inner ear to explain where the infection was. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I understood enough of my aural anatomy to understand just the words.

When GPs print off what they have googled for you to take away with you I wonder if they realise that their patients are computer literate and can do it for themselves. I have often come away with a sheaf of papers that I don't need because I could have printed them off in my own home. I have to humour them.

Yes humour them! Only they wil have found dusted that are validated not ransoms with an axe to grind

Bloody phone they will have found valid sites

Not randoms

missingmum I have a professional involvement with the health service and they know that. I am very familiar with the websites. I don't need the printouts

Well tell them that then?

My old GP used to give diagnoses and then check everything in a book he had - he especially would check medicine he was prescribing. I was quite impressed that he was doing his best not to make mistakes.

I must admit I was a bit unnerved when a consultant anaesthetist told me he'd googled ds2's condition to double check what it was. Ds2 at this point was in a kind of coma, unable to wake up from having his tonsils out...! Turns out he's got a very rare condition and the anaesthetist had never seen it in over 2,000 operations.

So in the end I was grateful he realised what it was and then took the time to double check it - probably could have done without the "I've googled it" conversation though

I think it's possibly our age if you're also over 40 We think doctors should know everything and we didn't grow up with google - huge surprise when these collide!

makes you wonder what they did before they could google?

Looked it up in a book, asked colleagues, took an unnecessary blood test and asked you to come back in 2 weeks for 'results' (when they had found out what it was).

Can't believe that most posters seem to believe that their Drs' get their degrees from a corn flakes box.

Most Drs spend hours reading medical journals, attending courses to keep up to date with modern medicine and yes googling information.

How arrogant to waltz into a surgery and say "This is what I think I have"

Why waste the Dr's time in the first place if you have already googled your symptoms and self diagnosed .

makes you wonder what they did before they could google?

They said it was probably a virus. It probably was.

Google is better than giving the complete wrong advice.I have had a doc who read a gynae report while sitting with me. Reading out of context snippets as she went and leaving me with the impression there was a good chance i either had fibroids which would render me infertile and or one of several types of cancer. When i eventually got to the consultant she wondered why both mum, who had come to support me, and I burst into tears when she said actually it was all in the realms of normal.

Same surgery, different hcp, had told me that colief wasthe same as infacol. Told dh he needed to go to a and e for a non existent brain infection, told dh that all his symptoms were anxiety based but gave him to idea on how to address that (not helped by being sent to a and e). Got told I needed a smear, booked one, got there to be told off because it was 3 months before I was technically due and the weird bleeding the doc had referred me for could wait.

Hmmm I really need to put more effort into finding a new surgery dont i.

To clarify the "going to the doctors with a mouth ulcer" debate, I didn;t know it was a mouth ulcer. I thought she had an infection. She had been up for 3 nights crying with the pain before I asked for advice. When he said it was mouth ulcers I said "oh, that's ok, I'll just get some Anbesol then, from the pharmacist"
Given that she has been sick ever since, maybe he was wrong about the mouth ulcers anyway.

I wish my gp had googled 'tongue tie in babies' when I went in with recurrent mastitis, blocked ducts, and an abscess.

Would have saved an awful lot of pain, sickness and worry.

I don't expect my gp to be a specialist in every area. I do expect them to recognize their limitations and refer to appropriate sources when faced with something they don't have experience of.

"Why waste the Dr's time in the first place if you have already googled your symptoms and self diagnosed."

Because you have to be referred by a GP to a consultant, even a private consultant. And laughingly you have to have your ear wax diagnosis confirmed by a GP (even though he might not bother to look in your ear) before being referred to the nurse (who will look in your ear) via a separate appointment on a separate day, for syringing.

I think the GP model is a broken one.

Why waste the Dr's time in the first place if you have already googled your symptoms and self diagnosed.

Because you might need some treatment. You might just have read a list of symptoms and thought "that sounds like me".

I spent months feeling like I was coming down with something but not actually being ill. Until I read an article in a magazine about someone with an underactive thyroid - everything suddenly made sense, and the blood test confirmed it.

I also got an apology from the rhumatoligist for not considering it when I saw him the first time.

Well you know by now that you are being utterly unreasonable. Using Google is the same as looking up something in a book, but probably even more up to date. She wasn't looking up vasectomies on ask yahoo you know.

The spelling is rheumatologist.

Doctors are never going to get things 100% right 100% of the time. I'd far rather they look things up, interpret the information correctly and communicate it to patients in words they understand.

Some people here seem to want their doctors to be the patriarchal white haired old man who knows (or pretends to know) everything and pats you on the hand whilst prescribing you the blue pills. Medicine in the 50s may have meant you could "know everything" but we have moved on in leaps and bounds and there is literally no way your GP can hold all the up to date medical knowledge in her head. There are now way, way more meds, preparations, diagnoses, referral guidelines, ancillary services and non-pharmacological treatments in the world.