To think the gps at my surgery shouldnt advise patients on things they know nothing about?

[Koothrapanties]

Dd has bad reflux and cows milk protein allergy.

It took months to get her a diagnosis and this was only once she was so ill she was admitted to hospital with blood in her poo and every other symptom on the list. She was in a very bad way. I had gone to the gp again and again, but had been dismissed as a hysterical first time mother.

She was put on domperidone, gaviscon and nutramigen (special milk) by her paediatrician and has been thriving ever since, still very sicky, but much better.

We had to go to the gp to get her medications on repeat prescription and were told by the gp to get her off of domperidone because it was an antipsychotic and very dangerous for her. We tried to wean her down on it but she started projectile vomiting again and was losing most of her feeds. Spoke to the paediatrician who was very cross that the gp had meddled and explained that what she had said was rubbish, and explained any side effects domperidone can cause.

I saw another gp for myself today and quickly asked him how to arrange dd's change to the next stage of nutramigen at 6 months. He told me to give her cows milk because nutramigen is not nutritious enough apparently?! I told him that the paediatrician had said not to even try to introduce it until after 12 months as she had such a bad reaction, and The gp didn't seem best pleased.

The last gp I saw for my pelvis problem also told me I have a problem with my ICG joint, which my physio has told me doesn't even exist! They were all laughing at the letter she had sent to them which made no sense apparently.

This isn't good enough surely? I understand GPs aren't experts in every area, but they shouldn't be giving out dangerous advice like they have for my dd! If they don't know, then surely they should leave it to the specialist dealing with the problem? Aibu?

Totally agree with alark.

Bloody lovely GPs where I live. And take baby health incredibly seriously...in fact twice I've been blue lighted to hospital with a young baby straight from the GP surgery..."just in case, we don't take any chances with babies". (First time was bronchoilitis, second time kidney problem).

I couldn't live with the risk aspect of that job. It's great that they do.

I had a terrible time at our GPS with my dds cmpi
Despite several trips to a and e with bloody nappies and a diagnosis from a private Paed as I was so desperate I still had to plead with the practise manager to get neocate on prescription. Dd had been weaned from the breast by this stage and I was back at work and I literally did not know how to feed her.
We also ended up with an infection post vaccination due to no swabbing .
Actually this reminds me I have to change GPS! Ours is awful and I dread having to go there and try and use the out of hours walk in if possible

The thing that made me feel like I was being treated like a hysterical first time mum was the fact my concerns were dismissed repeatedly. Again and again I was told everything was normal when I was clearly telling them I wasn't. I was also asked each time if dd was my first baby and when I said yes they would say things like, 'yes, I thought so' as if I didn't have a clue what I was taking about and just didn't get how difficult babies can be.

You should absolutely change your GP.

They sound dangerous! Ours are fine, but I would move if I had experienced anything like you .

Oh, and Apricot - I had pyloric stenosis too. In fact, accordingly to the Consultant at the time, I had less than 24 hours to live and my parents were told they should christen me in hospital. All because the Consultant had absolutely refused to consider pyloric stenosis because I was a girl and "girls simply do not get this". My parents were 99% sure what it was because they had seen my cousin (male) with it. In the end, in desperation, they pleaded with someone else (a more junior doctor I think) to test for it. The rest is history & here I am writing this post .

On the whole, I think Drs do an excellent job. It's not a responsibility I would want.

I live abroad so I cannot comment on NHS GPs, but at this stage I try to look up any medicine I am prescribed on the internet, as I have been prescribed, and know people who have been prescribed, some really dangerous ones for mild conditions.
The only GPs I really appreciate are ones who involve you in your health, by telling you truthfully when they have a doubt and what their strategy is for dealing with that doubt, instead of that feigned doctor-know-best attitude too many have.

Yes I was made to feel neurotic when I insisted on seeing te actual results of a swab taken.
And the look on the GPS face when she realised tere was a massive infection
She had not even checked the results just assumed they were negative and I was overly cautious

alark Brilliant post

GPs do a very difficult job under increasingly difficult circumstances

Our area has just brought in prescribing guidelines for infant formula because of so many instances of inappropriate prescriptions and demands from patients which was increasing costs to an unaffordable point. We no longer prescribe any soy or lactose-free formula, parents must buy it. We prescribe the milks for CMPI only when there has been a referral and proper diagnosis by secondary care and give only the quantities recommended by the paediatric dietician. I was told by one of the paediatric dieticians that some parts of Europe use specialised milks far more widely than we do and, in her opinion, often without proper diagnosis which it is suspected has increased demand here from some groups.

We've had the same experience with DD and CMPA/reflux. They just made me feel like a neurotic parent till DD's weight dropped a bit too far and I insisted on a referral. They still do cat's bum face at paediatrician letters/prescriptions. It's really not good enough tbh. I know they work very hard etc but surely if you don't know much about a condition you don't guess and put an infant at risk??

That is great unless it take 3 months to see a dietician
Then what happens to the child in the meantime?

I have posted here before about the gp who felt it was ok for my dd to wait longer 'a few more weeks won't do her any harm' for a hospital appointment. This 'opinion' was downright dangerous. By the time my daughter was seen, after numerous calls from me to anyone who would listen, she had 50% kidney function. She could have died waiting for 'a few more weeks' from kidney failure.
Trust your gut - and ask if you can have an 'open appointment' at the hospital to see them if you think you need to (in the case of idiot gps). And find out the name of the consultant's secretary and call them. They can be a very useful shortcut for help when you need it.
Having said all of that (sorry for the rant ) I am aware that gps are under pressure not to make referrals unless absolutely necessary - but that doesn't help you.

My GP is generally great but when it comes to DS and his asthma he is pretty useless.

He has refused to re-prescribe the medicine prescribed by his consultant - it took me phoning the consultant who then phoned the GP to get it prescribed even though the GP admitted to already having the letter from the consultant

He refuses to prescribe him steroids meaning we have many more a and e trips than we need.

His answer to any chest problem is "2 puffs of ventolin and simple linctus" - for a child who had 5 puffs of ventolin twice a day as part of the normal daily treatment?

SOMETIMES it would help if they would listen to the patient/parent and take into account the history

I

Sorry posted too soon. Have a look at my thread from a couple of days ago: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/2028381-The-NHS-and-private-dentistry-a-rant

I've been sent on a 9 week wild goose chase during my first pregnancy because of a series of incompetent GPs and dentists. I've been left in pain and left to suffer all because of some shit doctors advising on stuff they have no idea about. Ridiculous.

You have my unending sympathy.

And I should add, to balance things, that another gp at the same practice was brilliant at finally diagnosing her with asthma at 8 mo after lots of 'upper respiratory viruses'. It really can be the luck of the draw.

We have one rubbish one at our GP practice. You get him if you need an emergency appointment at the end of surgery because the good GPs are always still busy with their booked in advance appointments. Obviously other people have come to the same conclusions about his expertise as me and DH, and don't book him if they can help it. He is always free.

Ah, we have one who is 'always free' too (as no one wants to see him!)
Unfortunately he is the practice manager so his refusal to refer on for ANYTHING I feel filters down to the other GP's to.
This is the GP who, when a friend who has a history of depression in his medical notes (including suicide attempts some years ago) approached the GP to speak of his worsening depression and his suicidal thoughts of jumping off a bridge (as his best friend did some years before) - the GP said: we have no counselling available as Policy, but you can speak to the Minister if you like - and SENT HIM AWAY :O !!!!!

My 8 week old dd turned out to have bronchiolitis - spent a week on oxygen in hospital - but only after I took her into A&E as my GP had actually referred to me as 'over - anxious'. I got my notes and it was written in there, with 'neurotic???' added. I complained - it cannot be removed apparently but I am allowed to add my complaint to the file.

Nothing a GP can do can surprise or disappoint me now. A friend who was suffering a miscarriage and also breast feeding her baby enquired of the GP about contraceptives, only to be told she was infertile because she was breastfeeding so not to worry! I was told a serious pelvic disability would vanish after childbirth (it didn't) and no consultant would be willing to see me (baloney). They also 'couldn't justify' doing half an hour of research into my condition because it was so rare (despite my inability to walk). A friend went to the GP for help with pmt - the GP hadn't heard of it before, but googled it and offered valium. I could go on. Sorry, those of you who are good GPs. Maybe you are. I'm privately unconvinced.

I also don't think GPs do an exceptionally difficult job in comparison to many people who work for the state, nor do I think the circumstances are particularly difficult. Nor is the pay particularly difficult. Looking at my friends who have a range of jobs - teacher/nurse/doctor/journalist/solicitor/academic/physio/banker - they're all difficult jobs in different ways. There's nothing special about the pressure GPs are under. They don't know what it's like to do other jobs, and there is a culture of feeling put upon. If they spent as much time thinking creatively as they seem to do feeling peeved, and if they employed their powerful capacity for self-pity in the cause of compassion for patients, we'd have a stronger medical profession and one we could feel proud of.

koothrapanties I am so sorry you had such a difficult beginning with your DC, my baby also has CMPA.

I am very lucky that I had a really positive experience, my GP immediately diagnosed my DC and helped me make the changes to my diet to make my breast milk more suitable. Within a week his skin cleared up he starting smiling and could be put down with screaming his lungs out.

Does your GPs surgery have a feedback form where you can explain your bad experience. I have noticed that Practice managers are very sensitive to the information contained in the forms and included them when outlining future objectives.

The thing is, those good GPs who exist should do something about their colleagues who are so dreadful. How can you be part of such a terrible system? Do you all just turn a blind eye to it? Doesn#t it bother you at all?

Most GPs I have seen, both in the UK and Australia, are pretty good - but there are a few that really aren't. IME, the ones who aren't, are the ones who are convinced of their own rectitude and really fail to listen to the patient properly.

Bad experiences:
• my brother could have died from peritonitis. His GP failed to diagnose acute appendicitis, because the pain "was in the wrong place". By the time he was admitted to hospital, he had a tennis-ball size ball of pus around his appendix, which had to be drained before he could be operated on - if that had burst, my brother could seriously have died. He was on IV antibiotics as well and was in hospital for nearly 3 weeks.

• My niece - at 16mo was running happily around. By 18mo was falling over A Lot. By 20mo could no longer walk. She had had various episodes of sudden sickness (vomiting), lassitude, and then started fitting. The GP (and, to be fair, the hospital) put it all down to, variously, ear infections, teething, tonsilitis, febrile convulsions (despite her not having a temperature).
She had a brain tumour in her cerebellum that was blocking the ventricles, her CSF was under enormous pressure in her head. Eventually, at 21mo, my sister took her to KCH in London, where they did the necessary scan and found the walnut sized tumour. She was kept in, had a shunt put in the next day (10 foot jet of fluid across the theatre, apparently) and 2 days later had the 9h op to remove the tumour.
I know brain tumours in children that young are rare. I know that it's unlikely that the GP would have seen one before, and possibly even the local hospital - but they also wrote my sister off as neurotic, too anxious etc.
My niece could also have died, because of the increasing pressure in her brain, as the tumour grew. Luckily she didn't, and is still with us.

• The Gp who told me, 2 weeks after my first MC, that I was "too old to have another baby, should just be grateful I have one and stop trying". He is also a head of practice, and the only GP who always has appts available.

• The Gp who wouldn't listen to my problems with my own balance, just told me I was too young for degenerative arthritis in the neck and to get on with it.

Good experiences:
• the GP who came out to see my mum, and against mum's wishes, sent her to hospital - she had a burst diverticulum, also had peritonitis and would have died within the next 3 days if untreated. She needed an emergency colostomy and lasted another 10y (finally dying of bowel cancer).

• my Dad's GP - who listens and has sorted Dad out several times wrt DVTs, kidney stones, prostate cancer etc. etc.

• my own GP - sent me for physio for my neck and migraine problems, also referred me to ENT re. my balance issues (they got it completely wrong at ENT, but never mind - osteopath fixed my neck in 2 treatments and the vertigo went) and also listened.

But going back to the OP (sorry for the me-rail!) YANBU to think that the GP should not have gone against the consultant; if they didn't want to take the prescription risk, then they should have told you to go back to the consultant for the prescription, not given you the bollox they did. And as for saying your DD could go back onto cows' milk - gahhhh!

The xx thank you, dd is so much better now that I'm not hanging on to the shifty start. I will look into a comments form though.

I think the fact that quite a few of us have been labelled neurotic etc is disgraceful. I understand that parents can worry too much about their child's health but when you are clearly saying something is wrong, they should listen.

At my old (lovely) surgery there was s fantastic Dr who had been there since I was little. He used to judge how serious the situation was by how worried my mum was.When my brother was very ill he looked at my mumand send him straight to hospital. Good thing he did because he was in for two weeks in an awful state. He took my mum seriously and so should these doctors with us.

Oh and thumbwitch I am [shocked] at your examples. Awful!

Or even!