Wasting GPs' time?

[buckingfrolicks]

Watching Behind Closed Doors what amazes me is how people are going to their GP about things I would never think of going to the doctors with.

Athletes foot. A sore leg. A sore throat. Being scared of flying.

AIBU to think it is a waste of NHS resources to take these matters to the gps?

I am a nurse practitioner.
I have not read the whole thread, but I would say this.

1. Generally patents seek help for one reason or another
2. That 'other' that the rest of us deem 'inapproriate' may be really necessary (but not always, so I hear your ABIU). There are so many whom we judge but who have had ghastly upbringings, and they are ones who often seek out medical help; it may be a physical manifestation or overtly a psychological explanation. But they should be afforded the benefit of doubt, so should we all get that.. even the most functional of us all.

Sometimes you can't win. I dutifully read MN and saw that many ladies had been sent away from their GP with a flea in their ear after making an appointment for pregnancy. Dutifully waited 2 weeks for a telephone appointment to request referral to the midwives. GP was appalled and said he needed to see me. Another week for an appointment and he said congratulations, told me not to smoke (wtf? I don't) and filled in a form referring me to midwives.

my2bundles if you've been told to book a double appointment by the HCP you've seen, you tell the receptionist and they normally double check with the HCP or ask you for the reason for requesting a double appointment (the receptionists should know what needs a double appointment, they have a chart I think)

Also try self medicating when pregnant. A pharmacist won't sell you anything and everything says ask GP! OOH appointment given for a (normal for me) reaction to an insect bite for Piriton and a this an cream! Now get DH to go to pharmacist!

I felt like I was wasting my GP's time yesterday. I ummed and aahed about whether or not to ring for an appointment because it was "just a cough".....bloody good job I did. A GP appointment, referral to the hospital and a chest X-ray pointed out that I've got bronchitis and have probably had it untreated for a few weeks
What might seem like a very minor thing to an outsider looking in, could actually be something nasty. As a pp said, the athletes foot thing. My dad has suffered with recurring athletes foot for years, was self-medicating with stuff from supermarkets and pharmacies....by the time he actually went to the GP, the infection had turned into cellulitis and he had the onset of blood poisoning

Notso I can't remember exactly what the doctor said but it was something like strep throat query bacterial tonsillitis and that it was quite bad as he developed a rash from it and it was travelling up to his ear hence the awful ear pain he was having. He needed abx and only got better after the course which took about two weeks in the end as the first time he took the penicillin v it was in the back of my car after leaving the pharmacy and he spat it back out all over me and the GP had to prescribe amoxicillin instead.

Sounds nasty Temperance DD doesn't have tonsils so perhaps why no need for antibiotics.

For people saying for the fear of flying to take a piriton or drink gin you have obviously never experienced real, mind numbing, debilitating anxiety (I'm not scared of flying but I understand why someone with that fear would feel they need help from a gp).

I use my GP and hospital service when I need to and won't apologise for that or martyr myself by not having medical help when it's necessary

oh crap now I'm totally confused.

To go to the GPs or not, seems a moral dilemma in 21st century UK.

I just know that the sheer awfulness of trying to get an appointment with a decent gp, some in our surgery are pretty dire means that I have to be unusually ill, for a long time, before I will go. And it infuriates me beyond words that they make me go in for a bi-annual medicine review of the ADs I've been taking perfectly happily for 17 years...

Ive been for fear of flying - had already tried hypnosis and gin!

Only a few patients on there have made me think they are time wasters.

One guy in series 3 really made me think it is deliberate. He is on a few episodes. A young man in his early 30s who hasnt worked for 10+ years, smokes weed heavily and has done for 10 years and suffers from anxiety and depression. The weed is probably why he is depressed but he argues it is the only thing that helps with his depression. But then if it helps why hasnt he recovered and started working?

So counsellnig etc wont touch him unless he gets off the drugs which he refuses, he wont use ADs, his GP sent him to a rug service but the want you there at 9:45am and he cant get up before 12pm and so go.

So he is signed off sick from work by that GP and signed off from job seeking and claims sickness benefits.

He just wont do anything to help himself. He wont even try. Most depressed people want to stop feeling that way but he seems to want to stay signed off and living on weed. How that GP doesnt lose patience I dont know.

*drug service not rug

I didn't see the ep but Fear of flying, fine to see the doc for.
A real fear people i know were prescribed medication.
I (don't drink alcohol)nor would it work for my fear anyway. I am terrified, i would have to get completely hammered which would be worse.
Leg pain nothing wrong either!
If i'd seen the doc about my leg pain i may not have endedup with a blood clot in my lung!

My relative was put off going to the doctor's for 'just a cough'. It started in November and even when she'd had it for 6/7 weeks people were still of the 'You can't go to the doctors for a cough" school of thought. Then the GP practise themselves gave her a phone appointment for a suspected kidney infection when she had some pain, left a sample bottle at reception and then left the prescription. Then when those antibiotics didn't work there was another phone consultation they left her another precription for different ones. Then when those didn't do anything they left a third kind - still without anyone actually seeing her. She mentioned losing weight at each turn and if someone had just seen her they might have realised that she was losing a shit load of weight. She'd still have the kidney tumour, and she'd most likely still be dying, but her poor husband still wonders if the spread to the lung could have been caught sooner and she'd have suffered less in those first few weeks.

People not going to the doctor is as big a problem as going too often.

SoThat, you can be pretty much paralysed with fear of your depression worsening, I know I've point blank refused to either lower, or come off my meds, and I've been on them for two decades. I'm simply too terrified of being made more ill, and I suspect he's the same. The inability to get himself up is another depression indicator, and there's probably a huge back story we don't know about.

I can't feel anything but empathy and sympathy for him, he's one messed up kid :(

I actually really hate these threads that shame people for going to the GP. The people who are actual "time wasters" probably don't care what anyone thinks, and it just has the effect of putting conscientious people off going, who really might actually need to be there.

My 69 year old DDad recently had a little breathlessness. My Mum had to absolutely force him to go the GP, as he was saying it was nothing. Turns out, he had a massive pulmonary embolism and was walking around with a time bomb in his chest. He insisted on walking from the GP to the scan place, and from the scan place to the A&E, the hospital were absolutely amazed that he was walking around at all. He'd had a DVT in his leg that had caused it. I guess if many of you had seen him in the waiting room looking healthy enough, you might have assumed he was an old "time waster." Thank God, he's in Australia and could get a GP appointment that day. I am really beginning to think it might be worth a small co-pay if it means you can actually see a bloody GP in a reasonable amount of time.

Stratter5 I get that and so am I terrified of getting worse again or suffering from severe depression or even worse anxiety attacks again. They were terrifying. But he has never EVER tried meds, counselling, drug programmes, he wont get off his ass.

He has been using cannabis heavily for 10 years and I would wager that is why he is depressed...his GP expressed that view. The GP disagreed and said it wasnt keeping him sane it was holding him back.

Cannabis use causes anxiety, sleep problems, psychosis, depression...that is what is making him depressed and he wont stop it.

And he isnt a messed up kid, he is in his early 30s. Since when is a man in his 30s a kid?

Stratter5 to clarify, not sure if you have seen it....he refuses to be a "pill popper" he wont even try ADs or consider reducing his canabis use.

I actually really hate these threads that shame people for going to the GP.

So do I. I felt like a numpty gonig to the GP with ongoing depression. Feel bad enough without this. I pay £1000 a month in tax and NI though so am paying my way in the NHS.

Sore throat - many years ago my gp told me to come in every time to register that I'd had a bout of tonsillitus. I needed enough appts on my record to consider having tonsils removed, and the appts had to be within a specific time frame. So I did follow what they recommended! Except, after the fifth time I'd only racked up 3 apts in 6 months (the first two times I didn't go because I didn't realise it would be recurring...). So I never did get them removed. Needed to have 4+ instances on my record in 6 month period.

Yes, I have seen it. It shows a messed up person (better?). He simply doesn't function properly, whether that's from drug misuse, or depression isn't for us to judge, I still think there's a huge backstory we are not privy to.

FWIW I HATE drugs, even more than I hate alcohol, they are both scourges, although I doubt many would agree with me re alcohol. But that doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic to him.

Im sympathetic to him too as i have been where he is with depression but minus the drugs.

I did at least try what my gp told me to do. Medication, etc etc

He gives the impression he wants to be signed off. He said as long as he has his tea bags his weed and his rizlas he is happy.......hmmm. i never would have described anything that could make me happy in a bout of severe depression as nothing did.

floris me too! I prob looked like a young time waste in a&e sfter i was sent there (apart from me clutching mychest )

lessthanBeau I pay my taxes and Ni so why shouldn't I access them via my gp.

You really think your taxes and NI cover this? You, and many others, will be in for a shock when the NHS has been disbanded by the Tories and you have to pay for everything upfront or have health insurance.

The GP gets something like £126 per patient, per year. It's ridiculous.

Well I'm going to my GP for a pill ,valium or xanax ,don't care what. I am a shit scared flyer and need to be calm as I won't be necking the gin as 6.00 in the morning.