to think you'll miss your GP when they're gone...

[macdoodle]

I have been roundly criticised on other thread for trying to express this. And whilst I admit that highjacking someone's thread may not have been the best way to do it, the crisis in NHS GP is very real.
I have bee around MN for a very long time now, and sometimes the anti GP sentiment is astounding and utterly depressing.
So read this...he is not a GP (I am), but this article absolutely sums up the current problems and morale in GP at the moment.
I have been a doctor for 20 years and a GP (or in GP training) since 1999 and can honestly say that NHS GP is in very real danger of being gone very soon.
For those who continually slate GP's , please tell me what your better suggestion is, because I trained in a country with no national GP service, and it really isnt better in any way.
www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/03/from-adrian_hilton-the-looming-manpower-crisis-in-gp-land.html

It's obviously quite hit and miss. I often come away from my GP surgery feeling unsatisfied that I've not been taken seriously. The good GP's are booked up weeks and weeks ahead and the ones you can easily get appointments with are awful

The worst episode was when I had DD and became gradually quite Ill. it had become so serious I couldn't go from sitting to standing without support as I had lost all strength in my legs. I also had a rapid heart beat, was losing hair and a visible tremor. The GP refused to do a blood test and said The loss of strength in my legs was psychosomatic because my mum was paraplegic and as I'd just had a baby my brain was making some weird connection .

Thankfully I insisted on a 2nd opinion and 2nd GP was great and it turned out my thyroid levels were dangerously high.

Hit and miss.

My GP saved my DH's life.

He'd had heart surgery, but was taking a long time to get over it. After a few weeks, he seemed to be worsening, and one morning phoned for a consult. (I remember it well, it was Valentine's Day). The GP wasn't happy with what he was describing, so asked him to call into the surgery at the end of the morning's session. Having examined him, she still wasn't happy with what was going on inside him, and insisted we go straight to A&E. Where a cardiac team identified pericardial effusion, and he was rushed to the operating theatre.

I wouldn't have recognised the symptoms as being acute at all.

I absolutely love my GP, I hope she never moves away as I think I might have to follow her. Like you OP, I get sick of the anti this or that brigade. However, it could be worse, you could be a HV , they would hate you vpeven more then.

Can someone explain about private GPs and how that works, please?

I'm really really glad that we don't have to pay 50 to see a GP! I suffer from depression and have to go once a month for regular assessment and to get my monthly prescription of antidepressants. There is no way I could afford to pay 50 a time! It's ok if you see your GP once every couple of years, but it's not really fair too people with chronic oncditions (who ironically are far more likely to be poor anyway).

Eg, what happens to all your medical records?

YANBU. I now live in Europe and miss the NHS. There are a few occasions where I haven't had my kids checked by a doctor because of the cost and paperwork (very minor incidents where I would have probably seen a GP in UK). The local (private) medical centre is fantastic though. Gp recommended I have a blood test - I had it done in the same building and results back by the time I got back to the Dr's office.
People can't expect private standards when the NHS is so overused and abused.

i like my gp but i dont want to move to a massive centre where you dont know who you will see from one visit to the next
i would prefer a system where children see a paediatrician

I don't remotely hate GPs, I have many good friends who are GPs, however I question the wisdom of making GPs be everything- the gatekeeper to all other medical services, and running their own business. My GP friends do earn a lot, don't pretend they don't but they are exhausted and burnt out.

I would consider a social insurance system like in Germany. I think patients should be able to self-refer, heretical though that sounds. I don't think everyone would self-refer in a crazy manner and it would cut out the ridiculousness and time/money spent on having two to three visits to the GP to get a referral say to a paed for a childhood illness. I would also prefer the continuity of care, my children are seen by random GPs all the time for the same condition and it just creates chaos.

My GP have a first come first service on Monday and Friday which means you have to be their at 6am to make sure your front of the que for when it opens at 8 (no I am not kidding got their at 7 and was about 100th in the we and was told the appointments were all taken ffs

Tuesdays they have a baby clinic and are closed from 11-1
Wednesdays they close at 12pm

The only day they are open all day is Thursday shocking labour have a lot to answer for they allowed the doctors to renegotiate a far to sweet deal

And I often end up fibbing just to get seen no wonder why many end up rocking up to A&E

My GP is lovely - I live a little way away now as we moved but I wanted to stay with that practice. My husband moved to the new GP practice in our new village. His experience was to be told he had liver cancer within about 5 minutes and on the basis of no test whatsoever. He was then berated by the GP for not looking more upset and not taking it seriously enough. She also decided that he had a detached retina and sent him to A and E immediately. He had neither liver cancer nor a detached retina, but went through three weeks of hell while waiting for a scan and scan results. He's still unwell, and the stress had a very negative effect on him. He's now receiving counselling. There is no way on earth that my children will ever ever attend a consultation with that particular GP. She's appalling.

Ok- so am I the only one who read the thread and thought GP meant grandparents???

I thought it was a weird question to ask - of course you'd miss your grandparents when they're gone!

You can appreciate and support the NHS expat without thinking that the GP system is working well.

People tell me there are some wonderful GPs out there and I'm sure they are right. It's just bad luck that each time I move I get the one poor one in that area. It's an amazing coincidence.

I always get the one that takes on so many patients there isn't actually time to see any of them.

An appointment for next week is a waste of time. Especially as I am the kind to wait and see if I get better before even bothering a GP. I wouldn't be calling if it were something that could wait that long.

I seem to either get the the one that starts writing a prescription before you finish saying what your symptoms are or the one that always says "I see, well if it doesn't get better on it's own then make another appointment". Either extreme is useless and could be done a lot cheaper. Just replace them with unqualified call center staff.

The only reason I bother at all these days is if I need a prescription or a medical certificate. Personally I wouldn't take time off unless I was really sick and I wouldn't take antibiotics/painkillers unless I really needed them so this just wastes my time and means I must risk catching something else (or infecting someone else) in the waiting room.

Most of us are already without GPs in a practical sense so we may as well stop paying their wages and they can get real jobs.

To me, and my family, the NHS is excellent value. We go to a large GP practice - 12 partners & a few more associate GPs - and I do have more confidence in some than others, if I'm being honest, but there are none who I wouldn't trust in an emergency. I am extremely grateful that the service is there and, yes, I seriously would miss it if it were gone.

I know the NHS isn't free & that we all pay into it. I am sure there are plenty of people who pay in more than they get out year in, year in. However, my family and I have had various health problems and the thought of having to pay privately to see a GP every single time is horrific . We definitely receive excellent value for money. God knows how much our monthly health insurance payments would be if we had the US system - I assume premiums are worked out based on existing health problems etc.?

Year in, year out.

And expat - all the times I've seen you post on MN, and I never knew you were American. My head always reads your posts with a faint Scottish accent .

Last saw a GP for my 6 week check up after having my youngest 11 years ago, I've been lucky, some folks need them more than others.

But I would not mind paying to ensure I was seen when it was convenient I guess. Might get round to taking out health insurance sooner rather than later.

The last one I had was dreadful.

I wanted to change, because they were so bad. But the problems I had doing so...

I think if people had greater control over what gp they had, there may be less dissatisfaction with GPs on the whole.

If you have a good one you are lucky. Hold on to them! But sadly not everyone has that luxury to the detriment of their health.

We have a couple of fantastic GPs at our surgery, we did wade through a few hopeless ones, but I really appreciate how brilliant these two are.

There are two surgeries in our town.

The one I was with has a policy of the GP phoning you. They will often write a prescription and leave it on reception for you to pick up. I feel this is dangerous at the very least.

They ignored my DS. He was a few months old had constant diarrhoea, always had a sore bum in spite of me changing him as soon as he went. They would do nothing.

I changed surgery in desperation. I got the forms, filled them in, booked an appointment for DS for that same day. While I was with the Dr, she dictated a letter refering DS to the Paediatrician.

I have been with that surgery for just over 7 years now and have always found them wonderful.

I even know which doctor to see for what problem now. There is one who loves muscular/skeletal, so after a failed attempt to be sorted by one Dr, I saw him and he made me better (with a cortisone injection) immediately.

I love my GPs!

I seem to either get the the one that starts writing a prescription before you finish saying what your symptoms are

There is one like that at my GP surgery. It is like a production line, everyone is in and out in < 5 mins and while he is good if you want a quick prescription for something, I wouldn't go to him with anything vaguely complex or sensitive.

He is the only doctor I have ever known that runs AHEAD of time and is one of the few that always has free appointments. I don't know how anyone can go that fast and not make mistakes or miss things in the long run.

Where we used to live, our GP was lovely but was the only doctor in the surgery. She reduced and reduced her hours and filled in with a locum who spoke English with such a strong accent I couldn't understand him at all. I only went to the GP if it was really, really desperate.

Then we moved and suddenly had access to doctors who were available at short notice. Heaven. Despite that it took seven (monthly) visits before I was referred to a specialist, by which time my cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. Had we stayed in the old area I wouldn't have even tried to get an appointment, so I'd probably be dead by now.

If they bring in a charge to see the GP more people will die because their condition will be terminal by the time it's diagnosed. It will also cost the NHS a lot more.

Here in Jersey we pay to see the Doctors. Over £30 a time.

So if i phone in the morning then i get an appointment. There are no time wasters there because people don't want to pay money to find out that there is nothing a doctor can do.

so your post should be more 'Appreciate the GP you have and is free'