to think that people don't realise how tough it is being a GP?

[naima99]

My dad is a GP. He used to love his job, got home at a reasonable time and had more time to spend with his patients.

Now, he regularly gets to work at 7am and leaves at 9:30pm. He has no time for lunch a lot of the time. He hates that he doesn't have the time he used to have for his patients. He gets tonnes of abuse when he's running late but isn't allowed to say that he's late because his last patient was having a suspected heart attack in front of him, or that he had a child in front of him with undiagnosed diabetes whose life was in danger etc. He's lost so many staff members because they're all fed up. He has no life outside of work because he is working on the weekends as they're so short staffed.

He knows so many doctors in the same position.

Now I'm not claiming that GPs are heroes or deserve any more than the rest of us, but I hear them being slated so so much.

People get angry that they can't get an appointment, that the GP only let them talk about two medical conditions in a 10 minute appointment, that google told them something different so the GP must be wrong which results in complaints or anger directed towards them. I was on a conference call the other day when my colleagues randomly started slaying GPs and them not seeing people face to face during covid saying they need to 'man up'

I don't know if IABU to think that a lot of people don't quite understand that appointments in the surgery are such a small part of being a GP, and that it is a pretty gruelling job at times. Maybe I am just being protective over my dad as I can see him falling apart in front of me.

Does anyone agree or AIBU?

I have every sympathy with all GPs.

Sadly we live i a world where all public services are open to abuse whether that be doctors, nurses, police, teachers ... it's evident on here which is just a snapshot of wider life

they also need to learn about women's medical conditions fully and stop being so dismissive of period related pain, they also need to stop trying to shove the coil up every single uterus in the country

This.

As any professional, some excellent GPs and some absolutely dire ones with zero empathy or emotional intelligence. My experience has been predominantly due to poor mental health - one amazing GP over the 40+ years, the rest haven’t really helped if I’m honest. They just aren’t equipped to deal with complex mental health issues.

Honestly how the doctors treat you as a patient unfortunately depends on who you are and dare I say it your comparative standing with that doctor.

I say this as fortunately I am a professional and suitably knowledgeable to ensure I receive the appropriate mutual respect. Otherwise given my corporate legal fire power said doctor would be toast!

This is bollocks to be honest as previously I was treated as just another patient until we knew each other better including discovery of my professional background and that of my senior GP sister (also Oxbridge but other and wrong blue) and father in law a retired hospital respiratory specialist surgeon.

Doctors are public facing and honestly some are not massively competent and treat patients dismissively. I only tend to use NHS GPs because private sector health insurance ones are same quality normally if you insist on only being seen by the head NHS practice GP. For basic medical issues I just use online research and get my GP sister or other doctor and surgeon friends to verify if more serious matter.

I used to be a travel agent for all the GPs at the local surgery. Really great customers, genuinely nice people

One of the reasons there is a shortage of GPs is that so many work part time. They can work part time and still earn a high salary.

Can only imagine it is and miss the days when you got to see one gp who you were registered with
Nowadays lucky of i can even see a dr

GPS who are junior and not partner level yet can pretty much choose their hours as good one in hot demand given general under supply.

Pay is good and stress is different as only doctor and not if a practice partner - a

doctor and business owner with all the added people management and liability issues to deal with.

I love that many people on here think we earn circa 200k. The daily fail has you conned.

As a Gp I do a 48 hour week and earn 53000. Plus a significant unpaid chunk of overtime.

I don’t think that is actually that great. It’s about 21£ an hour.

There are days when I love my job, and days when I hate it.

Gonna be honest, I've been treated like shit by many GPs, most of which simply ignore issues until they actually become something bigger or tell me I'm clearly not wanting to help myself for having very valid reasons to avoid certain medications (that have long-documented negative side effects and severe withdrawal effects that I already have in my day-to-day life and am trying to be rid of). I would be more sympathetic if they gave a single shit about chronically ill people like me.

It must vary massively depending on area. I live in an affluent area and the ones I know have a very good work life balance plus the good pay. In fact one of the few dads who regularly picks up his DC from my DC school is a GP.
My mum, also a GP, used to work something like 8am - 6pm when I was a child with a half day thrown in. Now there's no financial pressure of school fees she works part time. Yes she comes into contact with people who are rude and aggressive but also patients who she's known a long time and genuinely cares about - I think this variability is part the reason she still enjoys her job. Maybe time for your dad to retire if his hearts no longer in it as eventually his feelings will be picked up by his patients.
I rarely go to the Drs but my experiences are consistent with what many pp have said. I'm nothing but polite but have encountered GPs who are rude and dismissive. This is somewhat balanced out with ones who come across as genuinely lovely and eager to help.

@GimmeAy

I can think of more stressful jobs earning a fraction of the 200k per annum that a GP typically earns. Tell him to retire early and enjoy his pension if you care that much about him.

Hahahaha $200k a year?! No I have a friend with 2 young kids who is a GP. She works “part time” which means around 50 hours over 3.5 days. Crack on if you want it... I find It depressing how good a job the daily mail has done at convincing everyone that GPs over paid, money grabbing and lazy.

GimmeAy

I can think of more stressful jobs earning a fraction of the 200k per annum that a GP typically earns.

Some people talk bollocks don't they?

There is no pay scale for salaried GPs.

The minimum annual salary for a full-time salaried GP working 37.5 hours or nine sessions per week in England is £58,808 for 2019-20 (plus London weighting).

For a doctor working less than full time, this salary is calculated pro rata.

While the DDRB pay range for salaried GPs in England goes up to £88,744, there is no upper limit. You must ensure your salary reflects your level of responsibility, experience and qualifications.

The exact salary for all GPs is a matter of negotiation between the salaried GP and the employer.

^www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/other-doctors-pay-scales/salaried-gps-pay-ranges^

As a Gp I do a 48 hour week and earn 53000. Plus a significant unpaid chunk of overtime.

I was aware of this although I’m not a daily mail reader. That’s why I said there’s jobs with better pay and less stress and my kids don’t want to study medicine.

@Bourdic

I have had a lot to do with GPs in terms of professional regulation, QOF assessments and so on. If I were going to choose one factor that influences how well a practice works and the individual GPs within it and the quality of service on offer, it’s having the right Practice Manager

Yes, being good as a doctor doesn't mean you are good at running a business. Or are even very interested in it.

The problem lies with the way the NHS is structured. A big part of being a GP seems to be being a Gatekeeping Person with an encyclopedic knowledge of many thousands of possible illnesses. It’s getting increasingly untenable with the advances in medicine.

In the country where I live there aren’t GP as such.

We go to the clinic or hospital which specializes in the symptoms or characteristics we have and take it from there. Women’s clinic, pediatrics etc. If we are unsure, we go to a big hospital and ask for an assessment.
We can usually choose which hospital we visit. Sometimes need a referral letter from another doctor to be seen by e.g. a surgeon or rheumatologist.

An issue we might face is when a specialist doctor doesn’t spot when there are several symptoms at the same time co-presenting that might point to a more systemic illness. They may tend to treat within their area of specialism. Also there isn’t a full central record system sharing information between doctors so it relies on the patient disclosing all the important information about medical history.

Usually get an appointment same day or soon after, and treatment more quickly in comparison to the UK. Annual screenings are offered with coupons from government etc.

No system is perfect.

I prefer the way it is here because it allows me to choose a facility based on my symptoms without waiting a long time for an appointment and then a referral before getting another appointment.

I prefer to go to a gynecologist for checkups instead of being in a waiting room with people of all ages and both sexes with coughs and colds etc.
I prefer taking my kid to a pediatrician.

I think that there is an argument for moving some branches of medicine into their own system within the NHS instead of funneling everything through the GP office.

GP salaries kick off £50k plus basic from my limited knowledge but each NHS GP practice needs to provide the range or average pay (publicly ie website etc) as NHS and therefore by definition state or civil servants (from my limited understanding).

In central London junior doctors struggle to get on to housing ladder post qualification. But most senior GPs I know (not consultants) are well rewarded if they been in the profession for some time. GPs are not on the bread line! Admittedly as a City professional doctors are not as well rewarded relatively speaking. In full frankness doctors especially those newly qualified should be better paid and other health management professionals should be less well rewarded in my very humble opinion. Can’t see why NHS hospital management is on the big ticket pay as I personally think health care workers ie the general and specialist nurses and other more highly qualified specialist health professionals should be rewarded better.

Once you qualify as a doctor then frankly (after hospital posting) especially now with Covid and even normally the world is your oyster as many do jollies aka placements worldwide before they settle back into the NHS system.

From my limited knowledge most GPs with a few years PQ should be into the six figures or not playing the system correctly? Perhaps not UK regions but surely in London and Home Counties.

Private practice consultants are big league especially if named as a particular well respected specialist! That’s the silly money only work every other Thursday afternoon nonsense but need Pru Health or Nuffield to confirm the excess as above the normal insurance pay rate crap nonsense!

Just a few cents worth as currently wfh but internationally hence silly UK timeline!

As not a doctor but as a patient I personally think GPs are just that ie general practitioners and have to know a bit of everything but not enough depth as you would expect from specialist who naturally just become experts on that particular part of medicine.

Don’t expect a GP to treat you like a specialist would but the biggest issue as patient is getting that all important specialist referral if going via the NHS and not private health insurance route! So many GPs are so reluctant to refer to specialist!!!

Respect to all GPs though. Much more valuable to society than better paid City professionals essentially playing with other people’s money to earn more money in the corporate world.

All the Doctors at my practice work part time and they all do lucrative Private work outside these hours,

I would prefer if they did more hours at the Surgery so that we could get an appointment,instead of having to wait as long as a fortnight.

I worked as a Practice Nurse for years,I haven’t got much time for GP’s at all.They earn enough,and will palm all sorts off on the Nurses if they can.

Years ago GP’s took it in turns to be on call during out of hours,they don’t even do that now.

I will save my sympathy for people doing other more stressful jobs for a lot less money.

All the GPs I know earn 100k+ plus working part time. They tend to locum but there’s guaranteed work for them as there’s such a shortage. They have great low stress lifestyles at the expense of those tied down full time at practices.

I thought GPs previously were paid to sleep as otherwise known in the trade as “on call” ready to go if called out! Rarely happens as usually just a nice little earner in addition to picking all the private practice work - which is the same anyway but less pesky (social security) punters etc so no drug addicts and all that part of society!

I have no idea how they do it, OP. I had perinatal anxiety and the empathy and support I had from the doctors at my GP practice was nothing short of amazing. I'm in awe of what they manage to do with so little time and resources for each patient and they deserve massive recognition. They save so many lives.

ResIpsa, I have no idea what the fuck you are on about 90% of the time. Have you ever tried commas? They're very handy.

And I can't remember which poster it was upthread who had an appointment because she was worried she had cancer but decided to ask the doctor to look at a baby with a tummy bug instead, but TBH that decision's on you, mate.

Are you having a laugh?!? A GP gets to choose to work 1-2 days a week and retain their job and pension. What other job gives you that luxury???? Please do tell me.

So they have to work 1 or 2 long days 😂

@snowqu33n
Which country? Your system sounds much better, I might even emigrate!