GPs asking my occupation

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In the last 2 months I've visited the GP four times. I've had a different doctor each time and they have all asked what I do for a living.
AIBU for thinking that's a bit strange?

It's so that they can talk to you like you're some kind of idiot if you work in retail because you're doing another degree in order to change professions I've found.

I find it strange, that you find a doctor asking about something most Ft workers will do for the majority of their waking hours strange...

It's important in ways you may not think relevant.

Recurrent chest infection-do you work in an environment where the air is polluted with chemicals?

Dry cough- work with birds? Could be pigeon fanciers chest.

Wrist joint pain-at you someone who is having to type all day?

Ditto headaches/eye problems - computer screens?

Scaly hands-contact dermatitis from alcogels in areas requiring frequent use?

People go with hip problems - are you having to wear high heels at work as part of your uniform?

I could ramble on
Oh and I'm sure they'd love to have time to read everyone's details fully before each appointment - not being flippant, they really would. But time constraints and caseloads mean this isn't always possible.
Plus you may well have changed jobs....

My GP is apparently convinced I am a child-minder.

I have no idea what might have given her that impression. I assume she's confusing me with another patient.

After reading your posts, it seems obvious.

There's money involved in this data collection I'm afraid.
Ive spent hours and hours of my life collating it for the NHS
The most fucking stupid one was children's smoking status.

It's called a CQUIN
All services show they have 95% ethnicity, occupation, religions, smoking etc and each year it might change to be new capture data

There are various schools of thought about how it is relevant to your medical but care but fundamentally it has 2 goals - a complete patient record and generated money for the data

I like to give a vague answer and try and brush past it quickly, because when they ask for more detail or "what does that entail?" they always make a sound and go "that must be hard" and there is an awkwardness.

So I don't drip, I'm a charity worker and I help people from benefits to talking them out of self harm and suicide if I can, it's a broad range of duties.

When I say I have spent hours doing this I have usually been designing/redoing forms to get all the data, pulling the data and finding gaps and training staff in what to ask and where to record it.
Then each quarter they tell you whether you reached your target

Myusernameismyusername

That's really interesting. Thanks

You are more succeptable to certain illness/injuries depending on your occupation.
Religion being asked before an operation is for jehovous witness (blood transfusion) for example. Or if you are Catholic, you Used to be able to get the hospital Chaplin to visit before the operation for praying/blessing. (Don't know if hospitals still have a resident Chaplin these days ?)

Is it the same for Dentists?
I've had a dentist ask my occupation too.

I've never worked in dental but probably for all the same reasons.

It is relevant for medical care but the only way to get it is to give the health care professional at the event an incentive/reminder and they have done this via the CQUIN's. There is more and more pressure on them to have all this data on the record so you will get asked more nowadays.

The last place I worked needed:
Relationship status, religion, smoking, ethnicity, what kind of accomodation you live in, job status etc. But as GP's are stretched for time they blanket ask a lot of these things - also like I said it is also medically relevant but this might explain the rise in asking as it's drummed into them

If you are a solicitor or journalist they get really worried.

Really?

I'm a solicitor

Wondered how they really felt about that.

I once worked in one particular setting where you get paid for each time you ask a woman about contraception and one of my jobs was to read all the notes after clinic and count how many patients were asked and upload it. Then the practice got paid for the results on that particular outcome. Same for vaccinations.
One doctor literally asked every single woman regardless of her age or the context of the appointment about contraception he clearly took his task very seriously

Yep, hospitals still have chaplains. IME they will talks to anyone, regardless of religion.

Yes we do worry about professions but usually if they confess they are also a doctor. Those are the scary ones

It sounds like I do very similar to Myusername (designing forms, training staff what to record, where to record it and why we need to, finding gaps, repeat ad nauseum) but should point out the NHS doesn't sell data to make money, just in case anyone got that impression. They get more money for having higher rates of completed data, which is paid by CQUIN to each Trust.

But occupation is also clinically relevant and others have explained why. Religion is clinically relevant, but is also essential to know if you're on a ward - for meal planning, helping patients to observe prayer times and of course, some religions have strict time frames which must be observed in the case of death, so hospitals need to be aware if they may need to fast track a post mortem in order to release a body within a respectful amount of time.

If this info is on your GP summary care record it's easier for the hospital to pull all this info across to their patient admin system if you're admitted in an emergency.

Your GP is doing good to ask these details each time, it can be a bit of a battle getting hospital staff to ask these questions, as unless it's explained explicitly why it's needed they think the same way you did at first OP and think it's unnecessary, or worse, being nosey.

Myusernameismyusername

I imagine it takes a huge amount of skill to extract that much info in such a short space of time - as well as assessment and diagnosis.

I didn't mean to imply they sell it sorry. No it's income

There are a lot of notes not all visible on screen at the time of consultation.. Certainly not the original form filled.
People have extremely fixed ideas about Drs don't they?
The whole point of a consultation is for the Dr to gather their own information. That's why it's a bit exasperation get if patients get cross being asked questions because they were asked the same ones in AE or by a nurse etc.. It's confirming and reassessing afresh.

Exasperating

Queen I don't get in the least bit worried if a patient is a solicitor or a journalist if that makes you feel better! I worry if someone who has come in with unexplained collapses is a pilot or a HGV driver though for example. Or seizures in someone who relies on driving. Or if someone who has anaemia is a Jehovah's Witness.

We do ask some strange questions if thinking of specific rare conditions too but I generally explain why!

When I worked in A+E we were warned that there were a few professions/ occupations to watch for - including other doctors for obvious reasons and farmers! If a farmer is coming to A+E there is a very good reason, they will usually only come if an arm is hanging off or something.

I think HCP's can find the targets stressful but we tend to try to extract as much of the data for them anyway. So I would train admin to get as much of it from the referral as possible in secondary care but that's not possible in primary care so that's why they will ask you to fill in forms at reception.

I think GP's have it the worst. Also depending on what system software is used you can't assume A&E can see anything from the GP surgery records