to wonder if the GP should do more?

[DorothyL]

My son has chronic health problems.
Today we were sent for him to receive 24 hour blood pressure monitoring- he had been referred by the consultant. Unfortunately this could not go ahead as no cuff would fit which is to do with his condition. The nurses told me to ask the GP for advice, so I spoke to the receptionist at the surgery once I got home and she said she'd pass it on.

I just received a phone call from the surgery - not sure what the person's role was, but was basically told they had no idea why the nurses would say that, they could not help at all and I should call the consultant's secretary.

Aibu to think is this it? I thought a GP's role was to oversee a patient's care, especially when there are chronic health conditions? Could they not have offered either to monitor his blood pressure in surgery or to contact the consultant?

And yes I know GP's are overstretched of course - but they didn't say we're so sorry we are too busy, they basically made me feel like I was a nuisance for asking.

Really the people fobbing you off are the cardiology department, it was up to them to find a cuff and machine somewhere in the hospital

I agree totally with Isadora.

Lazy consultant and the GP's expected to take the flak. I feel so sorry for them, no wonder they're leaving in droves.

This is why no one wants to be a GP.

The GP had enough time to tell the person who phoned me what to say. In that time he could have phoned me himself.

Practice nurse here.
Podiatry have no capacity for diabetic footcare - see Your GP nurse.
Small businesses with no occ health department requiring staff vaccinations- see your GP nurse.
Independant dressings clinics full- see your GP nurse
CASH clinics now unable to process smears - see your GP nurse
Long wait at hospital blood clinics - see your GP nurse
Out patient clinic appointments cancelled- see your GP nurse
Etc, etc, etc. I now have no appointments for anything at all until April.

Passing a quick message on to the secretary is less time consuming than making the call themselves. Either way it should never have been sent to your GP in the first place!

Until May rather busy day

'The GP had enough time to tell the person who phoned me what to say. In that time he could have phoned me himself.'
Why? It's nothing to do with the GP as PPs have said. Frankly you sound like hard work.

Have you dealt for nearly 12 years of your child's health condition, fighting at every corner?

If you have, I'll accept your judgement.

Do you have a cardiac liaison nurse that you can call?

My daughter has one based at our closest children’s hospital and for any cardiac related queries, she is my first point of contact.

Jeez why are people giving the OP flack?? It’s not her job to sort out the politics between primary and secondary care! It’s not her responsibility to hunt down the right equipment for her child’s medical test. Whilst all the professionals are busy saying “not my job” perhaps they might try and remember that there is a patient at the heart of it all who needs someone to take responsibility.

And I say that as a long time nurse married to a Doctor.

Presumably this was requested by a paediatric cardiologist? My local hospital has visiting speciality consultants, perhaps the cardiologist is used to making requests for 24hr BP monitoring in a different hospital. If your local hospital can't perform the test then they should have identified where your ds needs to go, he may have to go to another hospital used to doing paediatric tapes. Not for GP to sort.

I really feel for you, and I can imagine how difficult and frustrating it has been, but

Have you dealt for nearly 12 years of your child's health condition, fighting at every corner?

If you have, I'll accept your judgement.

Does not mean you are automatically in the right and that everyone should agree with you.

The GP had enough time to tell the person who phoned me what to say. In that time he could have phoned me himself.
Is plainly untrue.

Unfortunately if the GPs fought for every single person with complex and chronic health conditions they would get nothing done. It cannot solely rest on a GP to sort out your problems, especially not off their own backs. They can only action something that has been asked for or deemed necessary. They simply do not have the time to go above and behond for every patient with a problem. I am sorry you're dealing with complex issues with your son but that isn't the GPS fault.

The GP probably told whoever called you what to say while also typing up a referral, while waiting for someone else to call back, while signing prescriptions to be collected the next day, while making sure they had completed everything urgent and checking all results that came back that day to make sure no one was seriously unwell. They have a lot to do and phoning you to say 'sorry I can't help' is not a priority.

I get where you're coming from, I really do. But you don't understand what general practice is like these days. Many GPs work 12-14 hour days in which they barely have time to pee or grab a sandwich at their desk. Ringing patients who are under secondary care to pass the time of day just isn't possible - there are too many of them.

I saw 35 patients today while supervising two trainees. I had two home visits. 22 telephone advice queries - much like this sort of thing, most of which I redirected to the right specialty after reviewing the patient's notes. I can't face calling back with the answers myself because the patients get angry with me even though it's absolutely nothing to do with me. I had 88 letters to read and 47 blood results/X-rays etc. I didn't bother to count the number of scripts I had to sign as it would have taken too long. Oh and a half hour meeting with a local mp because on of our patients complained they have a two week wait to see their favourite GP.
I cried on the way home and feel sick knowing I have to do it all again tomorrow.
I would dearly love to have the time to phone and see how my more complex patients are getting on but quite frankly I'm drowning as it is.
I hope you get the answers you need for your child and understand your frustration but it's not your GP's fault.

Also you don't have the number for your consultant as they would never manage to do anything if all their patients had their contact number. You go through switch board at the hospital and ask for the consultants secretary who will get consultant to call you back. It is up to them to sort out the problem with the cuff. Was it a paediatric consultant?

Phoning a patient's parent yourself takes way longer, OP. The parent will likely have a lot of questions, especially if they're already quite frustrated and emotional.

You're not unreasonable to be frustrated by the poor secondary care your ds is receiving, but YABVU to blame the GP.

Email the consultant. Look at the hospital email address form and figure it out. Don't play telephone tennis with secretaries waste of time.

Why didn't you make more fuss at the cardiology department? Ask yo Susan to someone senior or go along to the secretaries office yourself?
It's like booking a hairdressers appointment and your child goes to the salon and hairdresser says I have not got the right scissors fir your hair ask your mum to sort it out!

Sorry on phone
*Ask to speak to someone senior

I have spent the last 8 years fighting at every corner for my son. Still doesn’t change my view that on this one your focusing your anger on the wrong person

Give the hospital PALS team a call (Google PALS and hospital name) and they can liaise and sort it out for you x

The GP won't be able to source the cuff. The cardiac measurement team need to work out if the machine they use has a suitable cuff available (even if they don't currently have it in stock) and if so, order it. If not, they either need to borrow a suitable machine from another hospital, or refer your DS on to a hospital that does have a 24 hour BP machine with a suitable cuff for his condition. None of this will involve the GP. None of this should involve effort on your part.