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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think someone shouldn’t be registered with a doctor half an hour from where they live

170 replies

User6007000 · 27/09/2019 20:12

A friend of mine is registered at the same gp as me and she lives half an hour a way from the gp. Aibu to think this shouldn’t be allowed? Where she lives is still the same health care trust. She said there is a law which allowed her to do this? I have always thought gp’s have catchment areas

OP posts:
Fours6 · 27/09/2019 23:15

I literally can't believe you are this bothered it, is your friend having loads of appointments? Probably not it really isn't an issue.

LovePoppy · 27/09/2019 23:21

I believe her being there affects appointment availability.

I say this kindly, but you need to get one hell of a grip

welliesarefuntowear · 27/09/2019 23:21

The surgery I work at are having to delist patients outside our catchment area because of house building developments mean that the new local patients will have to take priority. It's upsetting and difficult but necessary to provide w service to the local area. I am agog at the comments about home visits. The demand for them is relentless.

LovePoppy · 27/09/2019 23:25

You know of your friend switched, they’d just take on another patient.

eurochick · 27/09/2019 23:27

When I moved across London the GPs in my new area were not taking new patients for 18 months after I moved. I stayed registered at my old GP a few boroughs away. What should I have done, op? Commanded a Tower Hamlets to build a shiny new surgery for me?

SilverChime · 27/09/2019 23:29

I moved and didn’t change my GP because the old one has a free car park directly out the back and a pharmacy next door, the convenience of which outweighs the slightly longer drive.

Samosaurus · 27/09/2019 23:42

If your friend needs so many appointments that she is affecting all the other patients at the GP there must be something terribly wrong with her. Although how one patient could be causing such a problem is in reality quite implausible. OP is there really some other reason you have a problem with this? As your excuse for being concerned about this is very odd.

EatsFartsAndLeaves · 27/09/2019 23:47

I live nearly half an hour's walk from mine. I don't drive and a medical issue makes me walk slowly. The ones closer to me are crap. I'm in the catchment of the one I'm registered with. What's your point again?

StCharlotte · 27/09/2019 23:49

I believe her being there affects appointment availability.

As she would if she was registered at her nearest surgery.

Perhaps, if she's that ill, she appreciates the continuity of treatment.

ElizaPancakes · 27/09/2019 23:49

Was it not obvious from the OP that the friend has a closer doctor Hmm

I was booted out of my surgery when I moved. That was 12 years ago. Not sure I’d want to move again; this one is really good.

Worlds0kayestmum · 27/09/2019 23:54

I moved house 20 minutes from my gp practice and when I told them, they said I would have to switch practices. As I was pregnant, I requested to stay for continuity of care and had to fill in a request form which was accepted. My son was subsequently born with health issues and the care from this practice has been excellent and far better than the one 2 minutes down the road which my partner is registered too. If they ask me to leave then fair enough but until then, I'm happy to travel the slightly extra distance for the excellent care for my children

littlehappyhippo · 27/09/2019 23:54

@justasking111

Our nearest gp now is a satellite one open two mornings a week. So we stayed with our old practice when we moved three miles away. Our practice has 8 gps, 6 nurses and a pharmacy. The satellite one has one gp, one nurse when it is open. It is a no brainer..

What's a satellite GP? Confused

CSIblonde · 28/09/2019 00:53

None of the numerous 30 or so outlying villages around our rural town had Dr's, all were at least half an hour . We don't all I've in cities with lots of surgeries.

0ut0fC0mf0rtZ0ne · 28/09/2019 00:59

I moved house, but stayed with old GP for a few years
They requested that I registered with my nearest GP
I registered with my nearest GP & found them more convenient & excellent service

TheSerenDipitY · 28/09/2019 02:33

my doctor is 6.5 hours drive away from me, i dont need a doctor other than getting prescriptions, so i drive up home once a year see family and my doctor, and any prescriptions i need i can phone in.... he knows i dont live there any more but doesnt mind me staying on the books as even if i lived in my home town i still wouldnt be going in ( i weirdly dont get sick other than the odd cold)
my husband and kids have doctors in the closest town to us, 20 mins drive away and when asked if i wanted to join i said no ill keep my own doctor... i didnt like they way the doctors worked in the towns we have lived, you dont get one doctor, you get whatever dr is free a the time, and they have new dr's every 6 months or so, so you are constantly having to start over and in some cases argue for the medication ( my son has a asthma medication that some dr's think is the miracle cure, it is, and others are still caught up on Ventolin) ... so yes i drive 6.5 hours once a year to see my own doctor, i say just here for my yearly prescription renewal, we chat, often about gardening as he prints off what he likes me to have , have a laugh and i say see you next year, laugh some more and off i go

Topseyt · 28/09/2019 03:17

I really don't see that this should any of your business at all, but you do seem to have a bee in your bonnet about it that buzzes far too loudly.

You come across as an utter busy body. Butt out.

littleorangecat22 · 28/09/2019 03:36

I believe her being there affects appointment availability.

No more than YOU being there does, surely.

Is this really a friend, OP? If this was someone you actually liked, I cant imagine you getting so wound up over their personal healthcare choices.

notsodimwit · 28/09/2019 04:08

I live in rural Yorkshire and my doctor is 35 mins away as its the nearest practice to where I live Confused

littlehappyhippo · 28/09/2019 07:20

@TheSerenDipitY

my doctor is 6.5 hours drive away from me, i dont need a doctor other than getting prescriptions, so i drive up home once a year see family and my doctor, and any prescriptions i need i can phone in...

Well that's just going from one extreme to another! 6.5 hours drive away from your registered doctor??? Confused

That's got to be 350 to 400 miles.

And how can you be so sure you won't need a prescription/won't get ill and need to see a doctor during the eleven months and 3 weeks you are not visiting your family?

Or do you just go to A & E or call 999 if you need medial attention?

Someone ranting about it being 'wrong' for a person to be half an hour's drive away from their doctor is daft, as some people don't live near their doctor, but being 6.5 hours drive away is just bonkers.

littlehappyhippo · 28/09/2019 07:21

*medical attention (not medial!)

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend · 28/09/2019 07:25

My GP is miles away from me... there is a GP surgery closer however it always has locum doctors and is the reason why I refuse to go there.

It’s got absolutely nothing to do with you why she chooses to go to another surgery.

Angelf1sh · 28/09/2019 07:56

Why on earth does it matter to you? How can simply being registered with them impact on appointment availability? Your friend can only be seeing the gp once every couple of months or so like everyone else, you really begrudge her half an hour a year? You genuinely think that is causing delays? Unless your friend is making multiple appointments a week in order to stop others getting access to a dr and then deliberately not turning up to them, It’s not.

siriusblackthemischieviouscat · 28/09/2019 08:09

Why not? In my town we have many choices of gp. I have moved all around my home town but kept the same GP surgery. I actually have two that are now walking distance whereas my surgery can during busy times take 20 mins to drive to. Should i be made to move? Even though I've been going to this surgery for 25 years?

YouLikeTheBadOnesToo · 28/09/2019 08:17

I believe her being there affects appointment availability.

But if she moved to another GP, someone else would just take her place on the surgeries books. They’d still be the same demand for appointment.

In the last 2 1/2 years, my little boy has seen a GP THREE times. Once for his 6 weeks check, once because he needed antibiotic drops for an eye infection, and once for a checkup in between paediatrician appointments (he had an ongoing health problem at the time). I’ve been once for my 6 week postnatal check. We’re not exactly stealing all the ‘locals’ appointments.

The GP I am registered with is currently rated as ‘outstanding’, and has never received a lower rating than ‘good’ The practice closest to us is currently rated as ‘inadequate’, having previously ‘required improvement’. As I said in my previous post, I do not think that the fact I moved 2.5 miles to another part of the town should mean that myself and my child have to receive second rate medical care.

Stressedout10 · 28/09/2019 08:18

@User6007000
You are assuming that the closer gp practice has space for her and/or she is in the catchment for that gp practice.
I have 3 gp practises within a 5 minute walk of my house, all 3 of them are so oversubscribed that they have closed their lists to new patients and reduced their catchment. Due to this I have to go on a 50 minute journey just to get to my catchment gp practice in the next town over.
I don't complain or worry as it's the same 1 I've been registered with since I was born and the staff are amazing and I can always get an appointment with my own gp who until recently (when great grandmother died) had 5 generations of my family under her personal care.
Why should or would I change gps if I don't need to?