Utterly frustrated at not being able to see a GP?

[ismiseeire]

My health is detiorating! Sorry, in pain, so not a long explanatory post.

@amysteryforsaturday

Definitely ring 111 .

In same boat - six weeks of bleeding and no idea why - my therapist (employed by GP surgery) has said she’s ringing my GP to specifically ask them to see me, but goodness knows . GP surgery said the doctors only handle immediately serious emergencies now and don’t see or deal with any routine matters - said it’s for a nurse who just told me to crack on and stop complaining ...

Thats terrible

I did an econsult for similar recently with my GP - they rang me 3 hours later and said they needed to see me in person

Did swabs, blood tests and referred to gynae specialists - had colposcopy awaiting hysterescopy - and have given me tablets to stop the bleeding whilst waiting

Am surprised at the number of posters saying complain to the practice manager as I expect they are complicit in how poorly some practices are being run atm and are well aware of the suffering it is causing. Even in normal times I have had very poor experiences of their 'management' of formal complaints.

Are you in london OP? I’d either be switching to one of the digital doctors that are NHS (GP at Hand) or paying privately for the same.

I joined GP at Hand at the start of the pandemic when I couldn’t even get anyone at my old GP surgery to answer the phone let alone see them for an appointment, and am honestly kicking myself for not doing it earlier.

@SchnitzelVonCrummsTum

Ah super, another GP bashing thread.

I'd better ask my other half where he's been for the last year, working 6 or 7 days per week for 14 hours per day.

Clearly not seeing the patients he's been claiming to, or running the huge vaccine process, or dealing with patients for whom the long wait to see (closed) secondary care specialists mean they are deteriorating rapidly, or catching Covid himself (at work!) and working until he was ill enough to be admitted to hospital.

Nope, just skiving. Cheers Mumsnet, it's been a real morale boost. If your GP surgery is being shocking, contact the practice manager. If no result, move surgeries.

Yes, clearly I was referring to your precious DH.

Did you actually read what I wrote? Or did you just come on here to patient bash? You've accused me of GP bashing? How dare you. I haven't named the practice, I haven't bashed anyone.

@iolaus @QuestionEverythingOrBeASheep (and I think someone else, sorry!)

finally got a call from receptionist - I've got BV/vaginitis, they think also cervicitis and urine infection ... hence the bleeding for several weeks .

Still can't speak to a GP - just got told there's antibiotics and stuff waiting for me at the chemist . Bit bewildered by it and no idea where its came from !

I've been buying antibiotics and painkillers online from the USA.

Ive had no option as the National Covid Service no longer works for many people.

Even my doctor friends are starting to think WTF is going on with GPs. Teachers have to work, ambulance crews, opticians, even dentists are seeing patients so why not GPs?
DP did manage to see a GP for a suspicious lump recently, but another friend ended up being hospitalised with a heart emergency because the GP decided her breathlessness was loss of fitness due to lockdown and didn't warrant being seen in person.

Did ask if I could talk to a GP or nurse so I'd know what caused it, and how to prevent and what to do re pain - but told not necessary, receptionist just said antibiotics will clear in a week - 10 days .

The problem with ringing 111, OOH or 999 in fact is that you get an emergency treatment. You do not get sustained treatments or referrals. They patch you up and send you home. IF you had seen your GP 2 months prior, you would not have ended up in A&E.

I'm actually happy to give you all by PM the telephone number of my practice to see if you can make me an appointment! It can't be done!

[quote amysteryforsaturday]**@iolaus* @QuestionEverythingOrBeASheep* (and I think someone else, sorry!)

finally got a call from receptionist - I've got BV/vaginitis, they think also cervicitis and urine infection ... hence the bleeding for several weeks .

Still can't speak to a GP - just got told there's antibiotics and stuff waiting for me at the chemist . Bit bewildered by it and no idea where its came from ![/quote]
FYI you can buy macrobid online from the independent pharmacy in the U.K. you just have to fill in an online form. Macrobid is what they usually give you for a UTI. If you pay for prescriptions you may as well do that, rather than try and deal with a GP's surgery at the moment.

I’m an optometrist, and see patients face to face all day. You don’t even have to be having problems to be seen (the official guidance of our governing body)
I often see things during a sight test which means the patient needs to be seen by their GP, yet the patient cannot get a face to face appt with the GP.
So it’s ‘safe’ for an optometrist to spend 20-25mins in a consulting room with a patient, with some of that time within cms of the patients face...yet it isn’t safe for a GP to see them for a 10min consultation!?!?
I will admit I’m baffled by it!

[quote amysteryforsaturday]**@iolaus* @QuestionEverythingOrBeASheep* (and I think someone else, sorry!)

finally got a call from receptionist - I've got BV/vaginitis, they think also cervicitis and urine infection ... hence the bleeding for several weeks .

Still can't speak to a GP - just got told there's antibiotics and stuff waiting for me at the chemist . Bit bewildered by it and no idea where its came from ![/quote]
That's similar to what I'm dealing with. A&E can't do anything! You need your GP to refer you. I'm in tears most nights.

BTW my father (different health board and so different GP obviously) had several home visits during the covid pandemic, two of which they sent him into hospital, majority he was treated at home. At the end he was asked if he wanted admission (he said no) they attended the next day, when I rang them to say he had passed they were out within 10 minutes to certify his death

I can't fault them at all

I sympathise although I have mixed feelings about my surgery. I have seen a GP following telephone triage twice in the last year, and had a mental health issue dealt with by phone.

It's been impossible to get a GP to deal with dad, who we were told was end of life shortly after the start of the first lockdown.

The local hospice had rejected 2 referrals and the only way to get a third was to get GP out to him. Every time we called we got a phone/video consult or most frequently, the practice nurse out, even after the end of life care team called the surgery directly.

We have now given up and yesterday he was transferred by ambulance to a nursing home who can offer him palliative care 24/7 when it becomes necessary.

@ismiseeire I'm sorry you're struggling with similar . It's horrible . I've been in tears much of the day as so sore . I'd be happy if I could have just talked to someone, I asked reception what might have caused it and understandably she was clueless .

@Bluetrews25
I work in ED, we still have to see patients! Very frustrating for us hospital workers, it feels like there is a lot of fear out there, and it's all in GP surgeries. Why are we more 'expendable' than them?

Completely agree. It's like GPs are stuck in the hysteria of March 2020. They closed the doors and never really reopened them. Hospitals and pharmacies never had that luxury, we all just had to put our masks on, wash our hands, and hope for the best. GPs will all be vaccinated now too which makes it even crazier that they're still clamping down on seeing people. Agree with whoever said that you're able to see a pracice nurse but not a GP, amazing how they must have had some innate immunity...

My surgery refused me a repeat script of my contraceptive pill last autumn, despite numerous phone calls to them. Some sort of admin error meant they thought I hadn't been on it for a few years, despite having been on it for 12 years in a row. Boots had to deal with it in the end. I just can't get over the fact they were prepared to leave a woman with no contraception. They were so unhelpful.

Are gp's who give a shit a thing of the past? I remember taking baby ds1 to the Dr's about a cough, gp said it was probably viral. He had obviously thought about it during the day, then rang me after surgery to bring him back in. After 3 days visits he finally gave him antibiotics lol.

Obviously he cared and wondered how he was doing, didn't want to auto dispense antibiotics, but didn't want to leave him to suffer.

This was 13 years ago. Have things got so bad in that time that algorithms rule?

We don't expect any care and we don't receive it.

This is why i buy contraception. Not worth the hassle going through a gp ime

My friend sadly found a family member dead at home.
She phoned the gp surgery to get a dr to certify death and was told to check for a pulse and to take a photograph of the body and send it
I don't even have the words.

So sorry to hear this OP, I can fully believe it but still astounded that GPs are getting away with such a lack of service. I honestly don't get how they're not being done for breach of contract.

I've found London GPs to be awful in the past - ended up in hospital with pneumonia after eventually going to A&E because they refused to see me for what they diagnosed over the phone as a cold. This was years before covid. Now I'm up north and luckily with a GP that's managing to provide proper service despite lockdown. There shouldn't be such a discrepancy in service available depending on where you live, no wonder people are considering private health care.

That's awful @24MintyCedric when my Mum was dying the local gp was fabulous, got everything sorted. She had loads of support at home, then was transferred to a hospice. The people at the hospital initially were rubbish.

That gp was a proper doctor, my childhood one. No nonsense, told people how it was and did what was required.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

This is why i buy contraception. Not worth the hassle going through a gp ime

Oh no, I'm not paying for it if I can get it free. I usually get it from a pharmacist clinic with no bother but it was shut too (covid, even though the pharmacist was still in work...). When the GP finally agreed to prescribe they insisted on a blood pressure check (with the nurse, obviously) and I managed to get a smear test at the same time. Ended up abnormal and referred for colposcopy. Thank god the nurse was still willing to see me, doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened if she hadn't.

@Dugee pretty sure nitrofurantoin doesn't cover for BV so online scripts and bypassing the GP aren't the answer.

@Jenthefredo

My friend sadly found a family member dead at home. She phoned the gp surgery to get a dr to certify death and was told to check for a pulse and to take a photograph of the body and send it I don't even have the words.

That's jut... I don't have words. These people shouldn't work in these jobs.

I grew up in a different era admittedly. GPs would regularly conduct home visits to sick children. When I was 3, I had contracted measles, apparently recovered and then got really ill again. I went seriously downhill but GP came out to my house and apparently gave me teaspoons of water over the course of an hour (because my parents were arseholes and didn't want to pay for me going to hospital). I eventually stopped responding so I was bluelighted to nearest hospital and from there to the nearest childrens hospital. Not the NHS though. I think I had just become extremely dehydrated (on the verge of organs failing). Don't remember it at all. I was only 3.

It feels like we're returning to that level of care now. GPs can happily declare 'because COVID'. It's not really acceptable.

@ashmts hope all went well in the end. I had a smear ok between lokdowns, but everything else phone or the dreaded window pps desribed.

Meanwhile my mum wemt normally to a gp nber of times in lockdowns🤦
And..... Dentists!