To want to see a Dr at an appt

[Purplerayhan]

I can see a nurse, a care practitioner but a Dr? No. It's so frustrating. Without going into details, it's something that needs examining but because I called up with 2 non connected issues, I got told to lets see how the first one goes, they do a referral for a specialist, SALT oversubscribed team, to get in touch at some point in the future (no time frame given, understandable but frustrating) and they'll have a look at the hernia after that. Sorry, just frustrated. Why is ok for lower paid nurses and care practitioners to have to see patients face to face but not my Drs?*
*rhetorical

HCPs are human, prone to making mistakes like all humans

Yes, I understand that But I still think it's shocking to hear that such a potentially catastrophic mistake could have been made by anybody, easily. Despite fallibility, mistakes are generally the exception rather than the rule, and the more dangerous the potential consequences the greater the degree of care that needs to be taken.

Get used to it
With the dire shortage of GPs soon you'll seldom see one anyway. I know of 2 who are considering quitting in their early 30s cos it's such a rubbish job! I can see why given the amount of entitlement on threads like this

God reading this thread is depressing.
What a needy bunch!
GPs are lazy and incompetent yet I'm desperate to see one. How does that work?!
You want GPs to see you for your non-problems so you can leave with a bigger problem? Covid?!
Or worse still infect the actually poorly people waiting to be seen by the doctor?
Typical selfishness that's shone through from the British public this pandemic.
@BuggerBognor You do talk an awful lot of Cr*p. Making it out like your partner is some superhero for seeing patients unnecessarily just to act the hero when in reality he/she could be spreading covid and killing patients!!! How ridiculous.

@BuggerBognor you’re bloody rude considering your complaints about the ‘bedside manner’ of the GPs replying to you. Are you a doctor? Or just parroting what your hero consultant husband has told you?

Ive seen the dentist multiple times. I've also had emergency repairs plus police in my flat.

My Gp surgery has come across badly.
I've had multiple blood tests.

I'm involved in a vaccine trial where I've seen several people.

I'm supposed to see my Gp once a month.
My Gp has not called me once since last April unless I've phoned first. They wont make medication changes as they've " never met me,"

They refuse to listen to the fact that I'm gaining large amounts of weight though I have a small appetite.
My periods have not started after I stopped the deposit over 14 months ago. ( I'm early 40s). They're not interested.

I do feel your pain.....DH has an a couple of Atypical moles....one has changed colour and shape. He has been offered a telephone consultation WTAF! We’ll see what they say tomorrow but looks like we’re going to have to sink a load on a private consultation somewhere. Absolutely not leaving it.

I spoke to my GP three times in a week. I was able to describe my symptoms and going in would really not have added much. Scrap that, I simply couldn’t have gone in as I was in too much pain from sciatica. The telephone consultation was perfect for me. I’ve also contacted them 3-4 times for my children.

Thinking about it, I’ve never seen/heard more of my GP than I did during this pandemic.

@Purplerayhan YANBU, and I wasn't going to post about this, but to hell with it.

My GP Practice have been USELESS since the beginning of the pandemic. You have to have your head hanging off to get a face-to-face appointment, and even though a few people have said 'the GPs are trying to reduce their contact with people...'

Well it that's the case, how come several other practices within a 20 mile radius who DD, and several other people I know go to, offer face-to-face appointments, if you really need one? 'Covid' is just an excuse to not see anyone, (for some GP Practices - including MINE,) and I am so fucked off with them, that I am close to reporting them to the Health Service Ombudsman.

Half a dozen people I know have had to go to A & E, because of the poor care by the GP Practice. Including my DH. They had been fobbed off and fobbed off with 'phone consultations' and guesses and assumptions from the doctors, and prescriptions for stuff that didn't work. So after many months of suffering certain ailments, they ended up going to A & E because they were in so much pain and discomfort.

And as for 'find another practice then!' that a few people have said... Why should I? My GP practice is 4 miles away, as live in a little village, and my NEXT closest is 10 miles away. Why the hell should I have to drive that far? In addition, many GP practices don't take anyone on who is out of their 'catchment area.' Including the one that is 10 miles away! The next closest is 15 miles away. Like hell am I going that far.

Basically, my GP practice will NEVER see anyone (and I don't know a soul who is registered there who has had a face-to-face appointment in the past 12 months!) And also, you could not get a nurse's appointment either, from March, through to August. Then they started again (but the GP didn't,) and then in early November they stopped again! And are STILL not doing them. You can't even get a blood test. They are not resuming until mid April. And even then, the GPs are still not seeing anyone.

Several people I know have chronic illnesses, and are on very strong meds that require a blood test every 4-6 weeks to monitor their bloods, as the meds can affect the liver and kidneys, and also the heart. They are told they cannot get the meds if they don't have the blood tests...

Yet conveniently, last April, they were told (by the doctor) that as their last 5 or 6 tests have been OK, they can easily go 3 or 4 months without their blood tests! One of my friends was so worried that she contacted her chronic illness specialist who she sees twice a year (a 50 mile round trip,) and asked if it was OK to not have blood tests for 4 months. They said 'no it bloody isn't!' and were furious with the practice. My friend ended up doing the 50 mile round trip every 4-5 weeks, because the GP practice wasn't doing them.

If it had been me, I would have reported this to the Health Ombudsman, but my friend didn't want to cause a fuss. As I said, since early November, they have stopped the nurse appointments again, and are not resuming til April, so she has had to travel 50 miles AGAIN every time. Another friend is getting them done at the hospital.

Interestingly, just this past 5-6 weeks, several women I know have been contacted (by the GP Practice,) for a cervical smear, and a couple of weeks after getting the letter, they got a reminder to book the appointment ASAP! They have also had 3 or 4 'reminder texts!' So they seem to be desperate to book these smears in, but refuse blood tests, or face-to-face GP appointments (or any fucking thing else!)

And don't anyone say 'at least they care about giving people a smear,' because they don't! They are doing it because they're told to, and to tick a few boxes.

Two women I know who are registered at my GP Practice, are in their mid 50s, and both do not want any more cervical smears (They've had one every 3 years or so from the age of 25 to 50-51-ish.. but have opted out and no longer want them, and that is their choice.)

Yet, the GP practice has been going on at them to have one. No respect for their decision to have no more, at ALL. In fact, one of them needed eczema cream the other week, and rang the practice to get a call back from a doctor to ask for them. The doctor said 'I shouldn't be giving you these really, as you haven't booked your cervical smear yet!' She said 'what on earth has my not booking my cervical smear got to do with my eczema cream?' The doctor said, 'well we're reluctant to help patients when they are not taking care of their own health.' Fucking disgusting, nasty, manipulative, emotional blackmail. She had every right to refuse any more cervical smears, without being threatened with refusal of having the meds she needed.

Absolutely shocking, and disgusting, and one of many things that have fucked me off (and many others I know,) about my GP practice. Won't see anyone, and palm you off with guesses and assumptions, but want you to come in when it suits THEM.

As for people getting offended and sniffy with the 'I am a GP and I find this all insulting and offensive' type comments... Why are you offended? Nobody is slagging you off, or your practice. That's like me being offended at the threads on here (of which there have been a few lately,) where people are slagging off villages, and the people who live in them, saying they are hostile and rude, and nasty. I am not offended because the people in my village are not like that.

IMO, you will only find it offensive, if you see yourself in the things people are saying, and know deep down, that this is how you and the GP practice you work at has been behaving.

And people can bore off with the 'what a sense of entitlement some people have' type of bollocks. What's so ENTITLED about wanting to see a fucking DOCTOR about a health worry FFS?!

As a few posters have said, you can get to see a dentist, an optician, or a tradesman for an emergency repair, for gas or water or electric etc, and yet you can't get a GP appointment if half your leg is hanging off. I don't know why SOME doctors have such a massively inflated sense of superiority, but it's fucking me right off now.

My GP Practice have just started to do covid vaccinations now after being told they are now a designated covid vaccination centre. They must be raging that they are actually having to do something now.

^^ Word.

Fortunately for me my practice is good, but I've read about a lot of really crappy ones on here.

Thanks @SpudsandGravy That was quite a rant of mine. So long I had to split it into 2 posts!

Thanks for reading. xxx

I find it incredible that a GP would say something like that to a patient but I really can't believe a doctor would say that

Where in the UK is that practice? So I avoid it...

@littlepattilou
Are u just peed off cos u have a problem that the TRAINED medical professionals clearly thinks is nonsense and doesn't need to be seen LOL. Entitled or what.
Our neighbouring village had a rubbish GP service too. It got shut down with no replacement. So all their patients have to travel to our surgery now. So not always greener on the other side.
My local practice is also on the verge of getting shut down
You do realise there is NOONE to replace these doctors? So your dreaming if you think some doctors and nurses will magically appear that want to see you for every bloody fungal infection
Read the news. Massive shortage
Also could your GP be shielding? I know a few doctors at my surgery that are so no choice of being seen face to face. My surgery has 6 GPs so others and nurses are seeing patients. Maybe your surgery has lots of people shielding?
Also get Ur head out Ur arse. U should like an entitled best :)

*sound
*Brat

@Purplerayhan

Nurses are doing the “jabs” why do you think the vaccine rollout has been so successful.

Nurses and drs are trained differently but both have a bachelors degree. Nurses are trained differently but are in no way less than drs and are in some ways more liable then drs.

However it’s all in context if I had a specific health complaint given a choice between a go registrar who might have had 2 months training in the speciality and an experienced nurse practitioner with 10-20 years experience, I know which one I would rather see!!

I do understand what you mean though I have heart issues related to long covid and have just had my heart drug increased due to angina type pain via the telephone🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ve never met this dr at all. On the other side This dr is still faffing around with my long covid referral whereas I (experienced nurse) managed to find out all the details in 10minutes and he’s still not done the referral.

Ok I call BS on that comment about what the GP said to a patient, I really do not believe that

And if they really did say that, I presume the patient in question has raised it with the practice manager and gone through local pathways to complain about it?

If they didn't do any of the above, it's a real shame as that sort of comment, if it's true, needs reporting

But like I say, I really do not believe those exact words got said

@TurquoiseDress
I agree
You'd be surprised at what ppl hear when what was said was completely different

You'll also be surprised what patients remember from a flippant, arrogant Dr or consultant comment when it didn't even register with said 'professional' that, at best, was rankly superior, unnecessary and just off and at worst reallt bloody unprofessional because with only a patient's word it's no harm, no foul. Malcolm Gladwell has actually used Dr and consultant malpractice as a case study in how things should not be done (what the dog saw for anyone interested) in direct contrast to the aviation industry. It doesnt surprise me and the closing ranks is exceptional.

@Bigmomma164

Absolutely, I definitely agree with that

A significant number of patient complaints apparently boil down to "breakdowns in communication"

I think there are times when people hear things completely different to what has actually been said

Or poor medical comms?

I was involved with helping train bedside manner for Drs and by God they needed it

Quite frankly I would get rid of GPs altogether, they are a waste of money.

Have NPs and then specialist DRs and forget the crap in the middle.

Who would deal with “the crap” in the middle?

I don't have a problem what health care professional I see as long as they take my issue seriously and give me the right information. A nurse who has worked as an assistant practitioner for years will be very able to diagnose

Yes definitely a mixture of both

Patients hearing different messages to what the clinician believed has been conveyed

The doctor/nurse having used jargon/not explained something clearly/made some crucial assumptions