to think my illness radar might be off?

[CailinDana]

I'm originally from Ireland where every visit to the GP costs 60 euros. It's always cost quite a bit of money to see the GP so growing up we were only ever brought to the doctor when we were really ill, as in, not eaten for a week can't get out of bed ill. I wonder has it made me blase about things that other people consider doctor-worthy. My friends here in the UK bring their children to the doctor for runny eyes, a cough, a temperature, stuff I wouldn't even consider bringing my child for. A friend of mine said he was very worried about his DD last week and brought her straight to the doctor for symptoms that my DS also had. I just thought "Oh he's ill" and waited for him to get better.
So now I feel a bit unsure of myself - when should you bring a DC to the doctor? Am I being too complacent? I only see a point in going to the doctor if I feel antibiotics are called for (neither of mine has had anything like that in 3 years) or if they're floppy and unresponsive, having difficulty breathing or in obvious pain (again, never happened).

AIBU to ask you to recalibrate my illness radar?

You've completely misunderstood the thread and the comments on it.

Your child IS sick and we are saying they SHOULD be seeing a GP.

People are saying that Little Jonny who sat in a wet puddle SHOULNT be taken to the GP because he might get the sniffles because it will take the place of Little Jimmy who is very sick and needs the doc and is too poorly to sit in a room full of people who dont need to be there.

I bumped into my old GP a few weeks ago while we were both working. He was doing his rounds and stopped to pass the time of day.
I'd not seen him for years.
He said he was retiring very soon, that he had become very jaded, and apart from all of the red tape, the thing that bothered him was the fact that a lot of ill people couldn't get an appointment to see him because of being unable to free up any more appointments.
He said that appointments at Dr's surgeries are like lanes on the M25. No matter how many are made available, they are filled almost instantly and the more appointments that are available, the more minor things people go to GP's for.
He felt he was spending far too much of his time dealing with runny noses and coughs which were short lived.

I asked him why he thought people would go to the GP if it was a minor problem, and he replied 'Anxiety is one of the biggest problems his surgery faced today, people convinced that they were far more ill than they really were, self diagnosing on the Internet and endless 'What if's?'
His advice in general was that people needed to 'man up' a bit more and accept that everyone is going to feel unwell sometimes and that this is a perfectly normal way to live, feeling well most of the time and feeling unwell sometimes, but people are far more worried today than they have ever been and expecting a doctor to ensure they never felt unwell was impossible, people cannot continue to expect to only feel unwell for a maximum of 24 hours, some illnesses last a few days or a couple of weeks before clearing up on their own and rather than spending the majority of his time treating patients, he spent the majority of his time reassuring patients.

He said our increased awareness of our health was a double edged sword.
People don't want to adopt a wait and see attitude, they want to feel better instantly which a Dr cannot often help them with or they feel ok but go to the Dr for reassurance.

Not many illnesses are instantly relieved or cured by a GP yet people are struggling to understand this and continue to go to the Dr's where they are offered reassurance and in some cases, pain relief they can access over the counter or treatment which doesn't need a GP.
He said he was so jaded by this that it was one of the main reasons he was retiring sooner rather than later.
That, and the govt guidelines which put so much pressure on GP's.

Perhaps people's expectations for how often and for how long they feel unwell are high. I don't know.

Hi Badvoc - I thought this thread would go this way and it really wasn't the intention of the OP or mine to have a go at people who are frequent attendees at the GP. Frequent unnecessary attendance - particularly for adults is irritating though when you have a poorly child and you have waited a reasonable period and your only option is to wait 3/4 days.

That was my point about charging for appointments - it would be a deterrent to timewasters but for people or parents who are simply having a bad run of illnesses across the family like phlebas or have underlying health conditions (chronic or temporary) it would be crippling to have to shell out 50 for every appointment as my sister at home in Ireland has had to do.

I can't see an easy answer. If you made it free for U18's, and adults with chronic conditions; you would also need a system to allow for adults who have recently had an illness which may make them particularly prone to a run of subsequent infections. Otherwise the hospitals would be even more overrun than they are.
Then you'd have to means test it, and deal with the folk who will turn up claiming imaginary chronic illness just to get a medical card. Admin nightmare

It also f**ks me off when people completely disregard the advice of a practice nurse and insist on seeing a doctor for sniffles. What's the point of all that degree level medical training for a nurse if people are allowed not to take them seriously.

oh Badvoc poor you it's horrible when your child gets a run of illness.

am sure no one in the thread is laughing behind your back as we have all been there.

as a mum to a dd who has had numerous hospital/doctor visits and hasn't made the attendance says fit the last 2 years I say the ones whose kids never seem to get that ill are lucky not smug and that must be lovely for them

hope your dc gets better soon. we need some sunshine.

Thank you

I don't get people who run to the GP neither. you either get told off for leaving it too long (I have twice-left what I thought were colds / flu to develop into full blown chest infections) or you ended up really embarrassed if you go in thinking you've got pneumonia and are told nope just a cold (not happened to me but did feel a bit of a ninny once when the pain wouldnt go and was told there really isn't nothing wrong ). I have a Dd who is severely asthmatic and I still always treat her at home first before calling the GP. I've sadly seen the inside of A & E more times than I care to remember too. Most I've been was when a dad complained that my Dd was being seen first (she was being whisked through to the bays by paramedics on oxygen- by comparison his happily playing child did appear slightly better than mine).

I am a GP and we do get very tired of the constant 'worried well' who seem to have lost the capacity to manage minor illness at home.

Having said that, I never mind seeing children, esp the under 2;'s because an ill small child is scary, and part of my job is to offer advice and reassurance.

Its that adults who come in after one day of a cold that bug me ....

I wish you were my patient OP !

I agree with you, op.

My ds has the same symptoms and I wouldn't take him to the Gp. My mum and partner made me call in the check though and the dr said it sounds like a virus and he will be fine soon.

My friend said she was taking her dd in because she had a temp I'm sure the dr will take one look and say give her calpol. What a waste.

Charging would be a disaster for me. I have a very rare chronic illness that took years to get diagnosed. i was at the surgery with symptoms a lot that were dismissed as colds and viruses. I got really ill before a correct diagnosis was made and I was treated. And I have to go fairly regularly to the GP still for treatment.

At one time, patients like myself used to be treated in hospital outpatients. If i had to pay for appointments, it would soon be seriously expensive. And i don't have the choice. If I don't get treatment, my health will deteriorate and I will end up getting very ill and needing more expensive treatment anyway.

In spite my health issues, I still work part time and get no welfare benefits at all. I keep seeing changes like this proposed which if enacted, will end up making it not worth working for people like me.

Don't you have to pay €50 to see a Gp in Ireland? I'm sure that would stop people from taking the piss here but obviously not a solution

badvoc I'm with you.

We went to the gp's this am ( dd2 has health issues and asthma) she didn't at all mind checking her over. Yes, it is a bad cold but it can turn into a chest infection very quickly. Multiple hospitalisations with dd1 have taught me to be ultra careful.

crispy - And it would affect a lot of people with chronic illnesses too. I dont know if in Ireland they have done the same as here and moved loads of people who used to go to hospital clinics, to be managed by GP's? At one time GPs simply would not manage the ongoing chronic illnesses they currently do.

I can also see a lot of people complaining if they have yo pay jsut to get a Dr's not if they are off sick for more than a week.

Oh. People really judge everything, don't they?

Also when you see people in there with what looks like minor issues, some will be over anxious. Others will have chronic health conditiosn and those minor issues can kill them.

Absolutely, Grennie. I

t might appear that I am continually taking a small person with a cough/ cold. But she is on the seriously ill children's register, so needs to be seen in case something more serious occurs. Currently trying to adjust meds.

We would be crippled by charges.

We have lived in our area for 2 years and none of the dc have been so see the gp for illness. DD has been re. Her dyspraxia and ds2 has been to minor injuries.
My sil has had her two boys at the gp every sniffle and loose poo they have ever had and mil is a drama queen encourages it.
I try and be sensible and only once have I worried I may have called it wrong but the gp reassured me I hadn't. I go if symptoms persist too long or usually over the counter remedies and tlc aren't cutting it.

I do know some mums that think they need to leave with a prescription for everything and are complaining about how useless the gp is when they leave with nothing.

I wouldn't judge anyone sitting in a doctors office as you never know what's going on.

I do raise an eyebrow at mums I know taking their dcs into drs and A&Es for coughs and temps as the nhs is too overrun as it is

quirkychick - Yes if this was brought in to stop people going to the GP with silly things, it would seriously harm a lot of chronically ill people.

Also sometimes people go to the GP with silly things, when they are trying to pluck up the courage to mention more serious stuff. Like the friend who went to the GP a few times with silly things, before being able to say that she had experienced psychosis. She was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar.

Why would anyone laugh at someone bringing their sick child to the GP? I haven't seen any mention of anyone laughing at anybody on this thread. My point was I feel unsure about when I should and shouldn't go to the GP. My friends seem to me to go often but perhaps I'm too complacent.

Fwiw I would hate to see an equivalent of the Irish system come in here. It's shit.

Mine are never at the GP, but dh is one so there's not a lot of need.

He never minds seeing sick children, but I know he has a couple of what GPs call "heartsink" patients who bring a perfectly healthy child with a sniffle looking for antibiotics in every other week.

He has joked I think about putting up a sign in his waiting room that says "Adults: if you have no other illnesses and you haven't had your cough for two weeks - GO HOME!"

Yes those patients must be difficult. I worked with someone like that who went to see the Dr for ridiculous things.

I have taken DD (18 months) to the doctors quite a few times. I try treating her at home, but if she gets worse or doesn't respond to treatment then yes I will take her. She's also been to the walk in/A and E twice. Once was when she was 2 months old, I knew she wasn't feeling well, she had gone 8 hours without feeding or sleeping, but then she started screaming, a strange high pitched screaming, and wouldn't stop no matter what we did. I phoned 111 and they made us an appointment at the walk in centre. The other occasion was after she got a rash that didn't blanch when pressed with a glass. I have also taken her to the doctors when she had a rash and was crying, and didn't seem any better after calpol. And once when she had a cough and coughed so long and loud she was sick.

Every time, the doctor reassured us that she was fine and she didn't need anything prescribing other than calpol, rest and fluids. So I guess she fit the description of 'not being ill enough to be there'. However I didn't know that she wasn't that ill, in each case I was concerned that her symptoms could have meant she had something potentially serious or that needed treatment. Of course, I could have waited longer, but if she had needed treatment, the delay could have meant that she became much iller or needed more treatment than would otherwise have been necessary.

In fact, when I apologised for having wasted the doctors' time, they said they would rather see hundreds of not-that-ill babies so that they can catch the ill one early.

Oh just to clarify- when I say the doctor prescribed calpol I mean I bought the calpol but he wrote down a higher dose to that on the bottle, based on her weight rather than age.