to complain about this doctor?

[MaryAnnTheDasher]

I had a c-sec 3 weeks ago. Today i noticed it had opened slightly, called surgery, no appointments but they called me back and said come in, a doctor will see you. So far so good. Went in, the doctor had a look couldn't tell me if it was infected or not (said gynaecology was not his 'thing') but prescribed me antibiotics anyway. Fine by me as cannot afford to get ill with 3 small dcs. I had been in there about 3 mins max, and i said as i am here could i have a repeat prescription for my pill (was planning to make an appt this week to get it anyway but rarely would you ever get an appt for sooner than 2 weeks away) he told me that because of me he wasn't having a lunch hour and so no he wouldn't. I was gobsmacked by his rudeness and said ok well i would have preferred you hadn't seen me if it put you out that much and he repeated the same thing about his lunch hour. I do get that for 'emergency' appts they might have that policy and i would have been a bit disappointed if he'd told me that but i would have been fine, but i think this was whole extra level of bloody rude! I've had this doc once before when i went for advice about PND and he completely brushed over what i said and asked for my opinion on the new colour of the waiting room. Would i BU to complain or am i being over dramatic?

Well thats an interesting comment actually? Are we a consumer service like Tesco's or Asda, should we offer a demand/wants driven, customer orientated service, open 24/7 for patient convenience.
Or are we a professional service, with patients/clients, like a solicitor, bank manager or accountant, when you have to make a little effort to see a professional.
Because the first is not possible with the currents funding and set up, and if thats what people want then I think Virgin/Care UK will be better to arrange it, with a series of locum, rapidly changing, low paid doctors with no care or consideration in the service itself. That is the future.

Jollyphonics I am not sad any more. I am fucking FURIOUS, and am no longer interested in fighting for a system that denigrates me at every turn. Head down, job done, and work for whoever ends up on top.

macdoodle, you sound stressed.

I can see that the job must be horrendous for GP's now - what with all and targets, work loads, paperwork and probably another 101 problems that you would have to be a GP to know about. And as you say, if YOU get something wrong - then your mistake could result in further illness or death. That all adds up to horrendous stress.
And then there's the fear of being sued.
(I sometimes think all patients should sign disclaimers of some sort - Then Doctors wouldn't be so reluctant to prescribe some things)

But, to balance it out a bit, you have to realize that things are also a lot more stressful for patients these days as well:

There is little or no continuity any more - A patient very rarely gets to see the same Doctor twice, so finds themselves explaining themselves over and over and over again.
It's extremely difficult to get appointments these days.
When you do get an appointment, depending on the GP you get to see, they will often make you jump through hoops to get the simplest of things.
People used to have a family Doctor, that would know you and your family, from Cradle to Grave - that's gone.
Look at the elderly lady that was kicked out from her surgery after being there for most of her life - all because they'd taken on a ton of 'new' people.
People are stressed about the future of the NHS. (too many people flooding the system?)

So I don't think the Doctors are at fault, or the Patients. Its the system that's at fault. There's too much strain all round.

Indeed the system is at fault, so why are GP's being blamed, and dont say they arent. Every day there is a new article in the (government spin) papers. And the public are buying into it. Blame us, so that when it all collapses, it will be the lazy greedy GP's not the government.
My patients have continuity, except when I am on holiday. But when I burn out and retire early to locum, my practice will die.

YANBU.
"I haven't had a lunch break because of you"
OR
"I'm afraid a pill prescription will require some health checks and a discussion that we haven't time for today in this emergency appointment. Perhaps you could make another appointment if urgent, or discuss it when you return for your six-week check"
I am astonished people are defending this rude man, doctor or not.
I also agree with Rosboz about the Abx.

Unfortunately macdoodle, people like to take it out on somebody.
I think its a knee-jerk reaction - to 'bash' the nearest person (guilty as charged upthread), but I think most of us know that its not the GP's fault.
I'm sure most GP's, given free reign, and less restrictions, would love to spend more time with patients, but then I suppose you have people higher up putting constraints on you - and so it goes on.

I would like to say why I think the NHS is really going under, but I would get shot down in flames............

Probably didn't get shagged for months after his wife's pregnancy.

Very unprofessional and quite spiteful.
Someone, somewhere, sometime at the surgery will have to process the prescription, so he should have just taken the 15-20 second to do it there and then.
It probably costs him 10 seconds at most as he has to close the appt somehow anyway, so he can do that as the script is printing.

Twat, but just avoid, don't complain.

Oh, perhaps he'd just finished printing the abx and thought "Why didn't she say that 20 seconds ago".

I'm rubbish at AIBU. There's always something I forget.

Wow such ignorance. You think it takes 10-20 secs to do a contraceptive consult safely and correctly in a 3w postnatal possibly breastfeeding patient. You fool. Why on earth did I bother going to med school. I bet if he prescribed the incorrect pill and she had a stroke or a clot, you'd be first in line to get him struck off. We are truly truly fucked.

The job of a doctor has been so badly devalued in the country by the gutter press and government policy, that everyone thinks they can do it, without the benefit of (at least) 10 years training. If its soooo bloody easy, and such a cushy well paid job where the hell are all the GP's. Because at the moment we are facing a very real manpower crisis.

He had no excuse to be rude. Saying no is one thing, being rude about it is another. I don't care how crap his day was, you don't talk to patients like that. Absolutely complain.

Macdoodle, calm down ffs. You'll give yourself a stroke or heart attack at this rate. I've seen you on other threads, and frankly you don't so much argue cogently as spout vitriol.

I for one do NOT think I could be a GP. I trained for 13 years to do my job and never take a lunch hour and often work 2-3 hours unpaid overtime. But I still think GPs are a rare breed that deserve every support and understanding that society can afford them.

But there is still no need to be rude to patients. A 3w postpartum woman recovering from a c section to boot surely deserves every bit of understanding too? And being caring and sympathetic are surely a small part of the job? After all we are all bodies and minds.

macdoodle,
I think people are joining the thread towards the end, and only reading the Op's comments before posting their own.

It's only when reading the whole topic a second time, from the beginning, I thought ''mmm, the GP WAS right not to prescribe her the pill!''

But, people are human - and make mistakes!

macdoodle, I think you're right - the gutterpress don't help the reputation of GP's - who do a great job under the circumstances.

But, I have met some arrogant GP's in my time. Don't get me wrong, They've been brilliant and I've had good care - but there is arrogant way about some of them (why is that?) - which doesn't further the GP/Patient relationship imo.

Yes the GP was right not to prescribe her the pill at that point, but he was wrong in the way he went about explaining it to her. There is absolutely no excuse for him to have been rude about it. The OP wasn't unreasonable to ask, she wasn't necessarily to know it would take so long to do the prescription. But a simple 'Sorry, but it will take a while and I'm very busy, would you mind making another appointment' would have dealt with the situation in seconds. The OP wasn't bothered that it couldn't be done just the way it was dealt with.

I disagree that it's not worth complaining about either. Yes their serious complaints take priority, but often it's the multiple smaller less serious complaints that build up to make a picture, and if that picture is spotted early enough, then some of those serious complaints might not have happened at all. The bigger problem is that people don't make those complaints or don't take them seriously because they don't think they're worth bothering about.

For those commenting on me wanting sex-i think its fair to say i am not sitting at home with a gaping csec wound, 3 dcs and pending (crippling, if last bouts are anything to go by) PND and planning my next swinging from the chandelier session. I was simply trying to take control of my reproductive health. My 3rd (much adored) dc was far from planned and was conceived precisely because my PND after my 2nd DC was so all consuming, making sure i had sufficient amounts of the pill was far from a priority. I am thankfully aware of these early weeks being important for me to get as many things in order as possible before the dreaded black cloud descends. If/when it does then even something like brushing my hair will become an obstacle too hard to bear- let alone getting myself to the doctor to get the pill. It may not make sense to the couple of you that pointed it out but there was a very important reason behind it.

Hope it all works out for you MaryAnn -

And - Congratulations! :)

Ah MaryAnn I hope you turn out to be worrying needlessly and that black cloud passes you completely by.

Well hopefully, if nothing else, this thread has served to educate a few people about the complexity of prescribing the contraceptive pill. Sadly I imagine plenty of people just read the OP and saw an opportunity to slag off GPs, rather than taking the opportunity to learn something.

www.resilientgp.org/2014/07/daily-marathon.html?m=1

To clarify that is not me, I am a generation younger and unfortunately not in the posistion to retire yet.

I can't believe that people on here are saying don't complain.

The OP was given an appointment. When that was is fuck all to do with her. The GP was horrendously rude and ought to be complained about.

And not knowing whether a wound is infected or not is just shit. If rude and shit aren't two good reasons to complain I don't know what is.

Macdoodle - if you employ a solicitor you are a customer, if you speak to a bank manager you are a customer - just because the funding is arranged via taxation and NHs contracts it does not devalue the consumer of the service that you provide - they are lucky to have a free at point of service healthcare system but you do not grace us with your service for free - your contract is with the NHs - if you are underfunded and unable to afford the staff you require then there are ways of recourse - and I think you'll find a great majority of the country behind you - doctors should lead the reform of the NHs the mechanics beyond that require management - but doctors know what they need and should be the ones guiding that. NICE are awful IMO and don't seem to put the patient at the heart of what they do.

But if gps view us - their patients - the consumer of their service - as an interference to their day and not even worthy of manners or consideration then I wonder would they put the patients at the heart of what they do as essentially the patients are the reason they are there.

Macdoodle, for what it's worth here is my opinion on GPs. OP apologies for the hijack and I hope you recover well.

I have been fortunate to be under the care of an amazing GP for the past twelve years.

Because of her support and advice and encouragement, I now have two DC after taking 10 years ttc. Because of her my newly diagnosed chronic illness got referred to the best possible tertiary care, saving not just my physical health, but my mental health too.because of her my DH got early intervention on a serious problem. Because of her my DD got great care for her breathing problems which I believe prevented a longer term iproblem.

I moved recently and was worried about moving GP, but the standard of care from my new doctors for my DC has been amazing.

So to answer your question, £100k PA would be cheap for what you guys do. Your posts have prompted me to write to my old GP to thank her for my years of care.

YANBU.

My view on it is this. I regularly work through my lunch break, often seeing clients in crisis. I would never, EVER dream of telling them I'm working through my lunch break.

GPs earn what, 3x more than me?
He was rude, and unprofessional.
If it was that difficult, he should have said 'I'm sorry, I don't have time to do you a repeat as this is an emergency appt, but you can make an appointment in reception.'

For goodness sake!

maybe If I'd taken a lunch break today I wouldn't be so grumpy