To think I might just give up having a GP altogether?

[higgle]

I seldom need to visit my GP and when I do it is usually for some medication I could buy off the internet anyway.

I find the whole hassle of trying to get appointment, never being able to see "my" GP and the dark musty waiting room always staffed by a real dragon of a receptionist who has no idea of the concept of confidentiality a nightmare. The in house pharmacy never has either of the two things I've been prescribed in stock.

Now they have taken to pursuing me ( due to my advanced age) with patronising letters in large print about screening tests for things I know I haven't got or have made a conscious and informed decision I do not want. I can self refer for most things that might happen to me to the local BUPA hospital and if the need arises I suppose I could see another GP privately so I'm thinking of just asking to come off their list altogether and going without a GP - would that be a terrible thing to do?

areyoumymother - perhaps you can explain to me then why my GP said they can't even get locums in for holiday cover, they can't get newly qualified doctors to train as GPs because they see it as far too much work and why he told me he was reading about practices closing down because there are no GPs to recruit?

they see it as far too much work - I think you have answered your own question, Salmon; it probably is an unreasonable workload for a trainee GP, carrying the practice seniors while they are busy with other interests ...

GatoradeMeBitch as an aside, I'm baffled as to why the NHS is so reluctant to prescribe T3. I'm in the US and take Naturethroid, and while T4-only is the first line of attack, it's not hard to find an endocrinologist who will prescribe dessicated thyroid, and it's even easier to find one who will prescribe synthetic T3 (which I presume yours is from Mexico?).

When I lived in England, and especially when I moved to London and could not find a local GP with room for love nor money, I ended up using one of those weekend walk-in clinics.

albert - my GP is one of the seniors at the practice and he is very dedicated, spends time listening, and can't even find time to take a holiday (he didn't tell me this it was someone else) because they can't recruit people on the locum lists.

So you agree with me that they can't recruit trainee GPs. Hence they are not oversubscribed.

I know quite a few GPs and very few of them find much time for "other interests" - like family time even.

As others have said, deregister if you wish but there would be no problem to stay registered or transfer to another GP just in case.

GP training has significant vacancies this year, worse than for a very long time. This isn't for medical school but for fully qualified doctors who wish to train as GPs. Large numbers are retiring due to new beurocracy called revalidation and others are emigrating to Australia, Canada and New Zealand for better working conditions and pay.

I feel very sorry for people getting a poor service from their GP, but this us a direct result of changes imposed by the government over the past few years which has made it impossible for GPs to just get on with seeing patients.

Yes, stopgap, I take cynomel from Mexico. It's incredibly difficult to get NDT in the UK, it's only done on a named patient basis, and almost impossible to get. And people who pay for their prescriptions (as someone with a levothyroxine prescription I don't have to pay for any prescriptions, which is an odd loop-hool) have to pay over £100 for a months supply of T3! I can get 10 months supply for £30 online - which is about what it should cost. As there is only one T3 manufacturer/supplier in the UK they can charge whatever they like...

*loophole.

NightFalls - yes, a lot of newly qualified medics are going abroad.

I think it should be a condition of their training to spend a minimum of 10 years working in the UK after finishing their specialist training.

If they've had the benefit of very expensive training here then the UK should have the return benefit of their work.

Salmotrutta I can't explain anything to you but I will tell you where my information comes from. I live in Northern Ireland and have a friend who very much wanted to do his GP training. Of over a hundred candidates, he and only a handful of other doctors were successful in getting places. He was thrilled because it had seemed like impossible odds. This is the situation for doctors in Northern Ireland.

Interestingly, I saw research last month suggesting that Britain is producing too many doctors and we simply don't need them all. This was cited as one reason why medicine will remain so difficult to get into.

Well, it must be very different in NI then areyoumymother because on the mainland they are really struggling to recruit for GP training.

salmon you are wrong to construe that I agree with you re. lack of trainee GPs; I do not have the information to have an informed opinion. Behind every statistic lies a backstory. What I do know is that if our GP (the founder of his practice) offered a better all-round service instead of swanning around in his flashy Merc and taking frequent exotic holidays, my husband would not have been let down as he was, with near-fatal results. It is quicker for us to travel to our house in Brittany and see the excellent GP there, who is accessible, reliable and seemingly not target-driven, than to get an appointment at our local surgery two miles away.

Areyoumymother - there are 65 new places every year for GP trainees in N. Ireland