To talk about all of these issues at my doctor's appt?

[sharkirasharkira]

I know generally they hate you doing this and want you to talk about only one ailment at each appointment, however, from the time I initially phoned up to get an appointment it has taken me over a month to actually get one. I have multiple things that I want to discuss which I think could potentially be connected so it could actually be useful to mention them all at once if you see what I mean.

But in the past when I've tried to do this they just sort of ignore anything after the first one. Should I bother?

Fwiw, the 'reason' for the appointment is that I've had pain, numbness and tingling (pins & needles) in my hands, in addition to a number of other symptoms, including a skin condition which has remained unresponsive to previous treatments. I want to have my thyroid checked as the two can be connected and I have a family history of thyroid problems.

I'm on some medication for another, unrelated issue and need the dosage changed, and I need a referral physio after I had an accident 6 months ago.

I also haven't had a smear in 5 years since I had CIN 2 abnormal cells in my last one (they haven't sent me any letters and i only just realised its been so long).

Wibu to bring all this up in the same appointment? I know its a lot (I'm generally just falling apart at the moment) but at the rate the appointments are being given out right now it'll be 6 months before I can get everything seen to otherwise!

Yes very unreasonable. My mum had an appointment the other day at 5.30 and eventually got out at 7.30. The doctor still had 4 patients to see then. It's one issue per appointment.

Well maybe you should think why we are haemorrging GPs

? So let's blame people for being ill?

I'm not unsympathetic but it's hardly the patients fault is it? Yes there are resource vampires but the majority of people just want their issues resolved. We all know it's a battle ground in the NHS these days and the truth is as a patient you have to fight for what you need.

OP I think you do need a double appointment. Maybe use the one you have for the medication change and book another while you're there if you can. It might be possible to get the physio referral via telephone if it's a known documented problem.

It's frustrating when you have a list of symptoms that could be presented as single issues but you believe are related.

Could you afford a consultation on pushdoctor? I just wonder if it's worth having a consultation and some thoughts/information to take to the GP. Maybe you could stretch to the thyroid test through that although I have no idea if that's something they offer or how it would work through an online service.

Write it down and hand it to gp

Say this is what I wanted to discuss with you but i know there’s not time to do it all. Then say which is most important to you.

Book another app to finish off the list.

Of course it’s too much for one appointment.

FroodGloriousFrood And rude. GPs are not the only people in the world to work hard, miss lunch breaks, get home late etc. GPs should be kind to their patients. For every patient that may go 5 mins over their appointment times, there are many others who are in and out quickly. And regardless you don't take out your frustrations of the job on patients. Double appointments are a myth at many surgeries, they are simply not given. I have lost all sympathy with most GPs due to their terrible attitudes and poor performance. They are putting people off going at all, they are intimidating, almost sitting there with their stopwatch. Not all are like it obviously but it's becoming more common.

If the hospital said you can go back, why don’t you try ringing the physiotherapy to see if you can revive your referral?

In the past I have written my GP a letter and asked if a phone appointment would be possible. It can be a useful first step.
It is hard when you have multiple health issues.
My GP advised me not to even try to see anyone after my son died because they wouldn't have time to talk to me.
So I struggle on with as much as I can, only make appointments if I can't get test results any other way.
The hospital keeps cancelling my appointments too. I have developed serious side effects from medication that should have been reviewed 6 months ago.
It is all unravelling.

We are in a vicious circle, I have a number of health issues, one of which can affect the other. Over the summer I couldn't get an appointment for several weeks. Nothing was such that it could be deemed same day important but I became very poorly as a result and it took me months to gain some sort of semblance of health again. At that first gp appointment that I could get I had no idea which was the most critical issue.

Book the smear at reception and choose one of the others to discuss. Its not safe to ram loads of things into one appt

Hahahahaha, this is a reverse right??

Of course you are being completely and utterly unreasonable, a GP's room does not work on tardis time.

Create a bullet point list. Hand that over within 10 seconds of walking in and your GP will assimilate what might be related and how, plus what needs rebooking into a second appointment. Personally I would suggest min 30-40mins to get all that lot assessed properly, there is no way this will fit safely into a 10 minute appointment and you will also likely still need to return for results.

Sadly the UK government's failure to value and invest in NHS primary care in the UK is why you are left with the service you currently have available or the choice to see a private GP. I left the Uk 4 years ago and am now a GP in Australia, sorry but this is UK NHS GP's problems coming home to roost.

To give you an idea I charge approx GBP 75 for 30minutes and GBP 100 for minimum 40mins. The Australian government provides a rebate to contribute to the cost of approximately 50% of my fee. UK GP is funded 120-140GBP to cover the costs of providing care FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR, the sums just don't add up.

jellybean is right though. You can't possibly safely deal with all those issues in ten minutes, let alone write up the notes in a way that protects both you and the patients. There's about five issues there - two minutes per problem? You also have to write up all the necessary referrals between morning and afternoon clinics which obviously takes longer if there's more than one problem - do you do that instead of checking all the blood results, or clinic letters, or trying manage what should really be a home visit over the phone because you just can't do it all.
When a patient comes with a long list I usually rush through it all with them so they can't moan about me cutting them short. However this means I have to take shortcuts, not ask all the questions and not do all the examinations I would do otherwise. So ultimately both they and I don't feel satisfied or safe!
I used to be really patient and sympathetic when people had a long list but I've come to realise that they don't care about me or the patients waiting to be seen after them. Just themselves. It isn't as if people don't know that the appointments are ten minutes. Our practice offers double appointments and patients often say 'I didn't book a double as I didn't want to take up more than one appointment' then stay for 25 minutes
You say you think your problems are all related, BadKitten has excellent advice for this above.
If you must bring a list please be open about it from the start. The least safe approach is when ive taken a full 10 minutes, usually more, dealing with something tricky then the patient announces they also have a breast lump / post menopausal bleeding / other serious potential cancer symptom.

Ok so it seems like a list is the best way to go. I see the gp quite infrequently, it always seems to be a different person every time so getting it all out to the same person might be handy.

I'll leave the referral and the medication review for now, some of the symptoms I have had for a while but attributed them to other things although recent developments have forced me to do something about it. Hopefully I can get the most major things sorted at least!

I sympathise with you OP.

I understand the pressures on GPs but think about it from the point of view of a patient who purposely doesn't want to go when not needed. So they have little niggly issues that pile up but nothing 'that bad' that they think it's worth fighting for an emergency appointment at the GP (often the only ones you can get - my GP has a booking system for the month ahead and there is NOTHING available unless you ring on the day). Eventually something comes to a head and you realise you do need the doctors after all but instead of one thing worrying you, there's five and you don't know which one is key.

I think this is why doctor apps have risen so much in popularity. Quite tempted myself tbh. This is where you get an app on your phone and pay like £20 to see a UK doctor who is able to prescribe (think you have to pay more for prescription). I don't see how they can do as good a job as an in-person GP but the thought of ringing and paying someone to think through the issues instead of squeezing in a bit of time at a busy surgery - it's quite tempting!

I have a sore hip occasionally on the outside (am 38, not a runner). It comes and goes so I'm not too concerned. But a little.

I have a weird reflux issue which makes me feel like I can't breathe. I have to sort of choke it away. But it only happens once a month. Not even sure if it is reflux or something more sinister.

I have bad allergies that I've treated the same way for 30 years and have only just realised that I could've asked all along if there were more options. Seems a bit silly to do it though.

Tbh, I will probably NEVER make a doc appointment for the above because if I have something serious enough to beg for a same day/next day appointment then I'm going to focus on that. If I could book a month ahead appointment, I might.

Look, my stuff is basically trivial but I can see that a) doctors don't have time for this nonsense with the pressure and increased numbers and that b) patients actually don't know what to do when myriad little difficulties start coming up! It's not easy for either side.

I basically only go to the doctors for my children now - they do get appointments!

I refused to budge until I'd finished my final thing on the list, I told her this was my appointment & there was no way I was making another one

You’d struck off our list for doing this! We had to call the police last week for someone who refused to leave

Book your next appointment now - it’ll seem ages away but will come around quickly - you can always cancel if things get better

well done peachyking.

theredjellybean is right, and not rude at all!

OP, just call the next day the surgery is open and make another appointment, or two. Basically make an appt for each problem. If they can be back to back with the sae doctor, even better.
I really don't understand why you would just make one 10min appt when you know you need more time? You do realize you will waste the time of all the people that have an appt after you?

Urubu are you serious when you say 'just call the next day and make another appointment or two ?' I am very pleased if making appointments at your surgery is this easy, meanwhile the rest of the country are told 'sorry no pre bookable appointments until June 25th 2020, you can phone at 8am tomorrow. When they try this they will spend 40 minutes in a queue to be told there are no appointments left, they should have called earlier 🙄 and that's after you have been interrogated by the aggressive receptionist !

Well why don't you ring and ask for the next available appointment and book it?
Then you have it booked and if it is not an urgent problem, it can wait a few weeks

Urubu, if it was that easy to make appointments I would have just done that already! Its taken me over a month to get the one I have, no chance I can book multiple appointments at once. The way our systems works is that you phone up and request an appointment - if its not urgent (ie, same day necessary), they call you back within a week and give you the next available appointment time. You can't actually just call up and book, no matter how far in advance, you have to wait for the return call. You also have to phone after 10am as the lines aren't open before then.

Go in and discuss your pins and needles (is it in any way related to your previous accident?)

Once that's done, at end of the appointment, mention that the hospital said to get a GP referral for the injury if required and please could they sort that when they have time? (They will have records) and you're concerned about your thyroid function, would they recommend a blood test?

Then when you come out....

Book an appointment for the smear, this will be with a nurse and GP needs no involvement. Mention to the receptionist that you've not had a reminder and could they please check your details.

Book the appointment for the thyroid bloods if the GP thought it worthwhile (one of the vampires will do that).

Book an appointment for a medication review. Depending what it is, this may be with a nurse or a GP, the receptionist will know who to book with based on your ailment.

Book another appointment, if necessary (or if the medication review doesn't cover it) for your skin condition. It's obviously been going on a while and doesn't seem like something that can't wait from what you've said.

My GP do things differently and they are absolutely fantastic. The receptionists are friendly and approachable and whilst yes, they may ask what the appointment is for, it is so that the surgery can make full and proper use of the non-GP clinical staff, who are excellent and patients are happy to see them, which frees up the GP time for GP issues. They are an incredibly popular surgery with a very long waiting list for patients but they know their limits, and will not take on more than they can handle unlike another nearby surgery who admit they have capacity for 7000 patients but actually have 11000

DH is a GP - they operate on a 10 minute appointment per patient. Sometimes is doesn’t work like that but the knock on effect is other patients waiting and admin tasks; writing up repeat prescriptions, hospital referrals, reviewing test results etc get delayed.

Would it be possible to invest a bit in your health and book a private GP consultation? I know we shouldn't have to - but I might be inclined to invest in my own health a bit and then follow up results with own GP

If not then lead with the pins and needles thing.

I feel so so sorry for GPs. 10 mins to include the time it takes for some people to shuffle into their rooms and tell them their latest anecdote before getting down to the reason they are there.

My mum is like that, rather than saying 'I have pains in my neck and they're getting worse' for example she will say 'Well.... I was sitting on the sofa oooh, about a week ago, and I felt a twinge, and I thought it might be the way I was sitting and then we went for a drive to the pub the next day and it was fine in the car but the day after that I was doing some gardening, because the weather was better and my husband said to me, you're holding your neck funny and I thought "so I am.....".' And the poor doctor is sitting there smiling and thinking GET TO THE FUCKING POINT but a lot of people treat GP appts as a real social event.

That used to be ok with a family doctor who could hold all your family history but now they less time to diagnose and prescribe than a checkout assistant has to process your shopping. And that's awful for everyone.

Plain and simple. You are booked in for a 10 minute appointment. If you go over this 10 minutes, other people are late, docs get a load of shit for being late (because of running over appointment times), end up with complaints, going home late etc. If you can talk about each issue in 3 minutes then great, if not, you won't be able to...

I sympathise with the OP. Sometimes we are so busy looking after others / working etc that our own health problems get put to one side. Then you realise you are, in fact, falling apart. It's really hard to get GP appointments. I finally got around to booking a double appt and managed to squeeze in 3 issues as 2 of them were straightforward referrals. My practice has a practice nurse to deal with non-urgent stuff and she's slightly easier to get to see. You may just have to prioritise and then make a further appointment. do take care of yourself and I hope you get sorted out.

Well, I had my appointment and it looks like I have carpel tunnel which isn't too catastrophic.

I asked for the physio referral and we both agreed that actually I'd be better off with strengthening exercises at the gym so I'm going to do that instead. I'm going to give it a bit longer and I'm trying to get healthier and loose weight, hopefully that will improve the other symptoms I'm having but if it doesn't then I'll go back.

Smear is all sorted too, I'm getting there finally