That GP waiting times are unacceptable?

[frustrationfrustration]

I very rarely visit the doctor, I have only needed to visit once in the past year. I have rang up for an appointment today and apparently every single pre bookable appointment to see the one female GP at the practice has already gone, she apparently only sits on a Thursday morning and a Friday afternoon. The earliest I can ring up in the morning for an on the day appointment to see her is the 16th of March. I was interrogated by the receptionist who demanded that I tell her what my concern is as apparently this dictates who she should book me in to see, she was sharp with me and asked why I couldn't just see a male gp with a chaperone provided. Has anybody else had similar experiences with GP practices recently? I can't help but feel that this is the reason that a+e's are being overused. This is a busy practice that serves a large council estate so I can't help but feel that the female GP provision is inadequate.

*I don’t think it’s qrong to not wan to discuss my breast with a male gp’

No, it’s not wrong. But it is bloody weird. A doctor is a doctor regardless of their gender. They have as much skill to diagnose and refer for a breast issue as any female GP, despite their penises. In fact, and men have breast tissue too, they’re just as qualified in a ‘boob or no-boob’ capacity.

Apologies for endless typos. I have fat fingers....

We have an allocated budget which is calculated 'per patient registered'.

So we can employ 4 GPs, with no nurses, receptionists, etc.

Or we can have 2 GPs, a Nurse Practitioner (who costs half as much as a GP btw, but can prescribe non controlled drugs, and do pretty much most of what the GP does) , a couple of admin staff (who double as cleaners & chaperones)

Some surgeries are running 7 days a week now to try to meet demand and it's still not enough. If we ask you the problem we can work out whether you could possibly see the Nurse Practitioner today or tomorrow instead of having to pre-book ages away or keep phoning all the time.

Do you have dc op? If so and you’ve had a complicated or emergency in labour in a teaching hospital then you can quite often have an array of male doctors looking at your nether regions.

Just been commenting on another thread on the demise of the nhs.

I understand your discomfort but the fact is most Drs are still male.

Practice nurses can usually either refer to a specialist themselves or request a GP within the surgery to so from their advice.

But the specialist is likely to be male too.

I hope you get this resolved soon

Far from unusual, sadly. I always refuse to discuss my reason for warning an appointment with the receptionist. Can you see the practice nurse?

I agree there should be more appointments but it isn't the GPs faulth.
However, the reason most of the appointments which ARE available are already booked is that many people book online these days, so when you ring up most of the slots have been taken.
I do online booking and if I want to see a particular person I often have to book them days and days in advance....but that means anyone ringing up will not be able to be fitted in because the slots have been taken.
Visit your surgery and ask if they do the online booking scheme, you get a code number to log on. You can also order repeat prescriptions and all sorts this way.....

Out of interest, what would you do if when you were referred to the breast surgeon, it was a male breast surgeon? Refuse to be seen by him? Or would you be happy with that?

If you're being picky about who you want to see then you really can't complain. A male GP will know just as much as a female GP, and given they're offering a chaperone I think YABU.

So what do you suggest happens? There is a severe shortage of GPs in this country and even if we started to train the Med students leaving Uni this year it would take at least 5 years before they qualify.
To the pp who suggested that the reason GPs only work part-time is because they have private clinics on the side Unlike secondary care specialists GPs in the main don’t do anything other than their NHS jobs. A GP may only have 2 surgeries a day and be ‘working’ for 6 hours, but with home visits, admin, referrals this more or less doubles their workload and GPs in our practice are often working a minimum of 12 hour days.

We only have male GPs at my practice.

It would appear you have two choices you either way to pick who you see in which case you have to wait longer or you accept seeing any Gp and get seen sooner. Both are valid choices but you can’t have the best of both

To be honest, 16th March sounds great to me.

Should we all just accept this and pay privately whilst the NHS sinks around us?

No! We should vote in a Government that will save it, if there is still time. Also any fool who believed that nonsense written on the side of the bus should hang their head in shame. I have four Doctors in the family, including a female GP and the stress, pressure and shit they have to endure under the current system is unsustainable and they only persevere because they are fundamentally good people who want to help others.

If you want a better system then fight for it and get that evil woman, Jeremy Cunt, and their guffawing, clueless, elitist cronies out of No10.

Seriously though, with regard to the breasts - male GP's have seen it all, it is just a body part.

Practice nurse here. I'm fully booked until the middle of March.
None of the GP's do private practice, but are pt because it's too stressful to do more hours. They've advertised more than once for another GP to plug the gaps, no applicants at all.
Our surgery is shut at evenings and weekends. Can you imagine how much worse it would be if we had to try and stretch our resources over seven days as the government want. Completely unworkable.

The majority of GPs at my practice are female - so you'd have a problem if you wanted to see a male. They are mostly part time though so trying to see the same one twice would be an issue

No, it’s not wrong. But it is bloody weird. A doctor is a doctor regardless of their gender. They have as much skill to diagnose and refer for a breast issue as any female GP, despite their penises

This! Sorry I just don't get it. Apart from women who are genuinely unable to recover from past trauma and are uncontrollably fearful around men, why on earth would you delay medical care because the particular highly skilled professional happens to be male?

I agree that few GPs do private work, if they are part-time it is because they may hold other NHS roles (one of ours works 2 days a week at another practice) or they choose to work part-time and have some days with children, caring for elderly parents, etc.

You are lucky you don't live here OP, our local practice does not have any female GPs at all

The reason the receptionist asks if it has to be the female GP is to ensure her limited appointments are only used by those who need them.

I will not see a male GP. I don't think that a receptionist gets to determine what a patient needs. It's not about need. It's about who I (and obviously OP too) wants to have to share intimate information with and whose hands are going on our bodies.

Who exactly are you blaming? The GP surgery? What do you expe t them to do?
If your need was urgent in this case you’d see a male GP. What will you do if the hospital consultant is a man?!

Also, many receptionists are now TOLD by dr’s and partners to ask you on the phone what you want to be seen regarding so their time is used properly. They aren’t doing it because they want to!

Yabu to request a woman for a breast issue. If its a lump that you think is serious, you'd be happy with anyone referring you. If it's not something serious then you can be wait like the rest of us.

The receptionist does play a major part in determining what the patient needs, on the instruction of their boss..the GP's.
If you choose to wait for a minority GP that's fine but it stands to reason you'll wait longer.

Doesn't bother me, I reckon old Dr. Singh at my practise must have seen hundreds of thousands of breasts over the years.

Part time so as to work privately? Probably not. Part time to preserve some work life balance (so working part time officially but full time in reality) - probably, especially if female.
There's your problem. See a male doctor. In my experience, they are more sympathetic.

It's crazy. A month wait for an apt with any Dr at mine & obviously longer if you want to see someone specific. My surgery do have emergency apts available on the day although not sure how easy it is to get one of those.