To think gps need to unlock the doors/open properly

[Nousernameforme]

Theres an article on the bbc about childrens a&e being overwhelmed by visits that aren't needed. Aibu to think that these people would have taken their children to the gp had they been able to? I know that they say a lot of them wouldn't have needed to see a gp but the viruses right now are horrible, probably due to everyones immune system being protected for a year, so it's harder to tell what needs help and what will get better on it's own.
My youngest has just got over the most awful virus which if it had not turned a corner when it did I would have got him medical assistance and if I can't get it from a gp I would have had to take him to a&e.

Our gp surgery is locked up the phone lines are only for those who have no internet and if you do get through all they do is put a request through on the ask my gp thing. I or members of my family have tried to see the dr for about 9 things this past year and got in once. 4 times we were prescribed antibiotics having not seen a dr.
Can we not have an official unlocking of the gp surgerys now please.

They do need to open up to walk-in queries - same with dentist as well though.

Someone was saying on a recent MN thread that her local surgery tried to call the police when she tried to drop off a letter! They really have lost the plot

And as someone said above, they, and their vulnerable patients will have been double jabbed months ago, so time to stop being ridiculous.

Unfortunately too many parents bring their little darlings to hospital and GP when not needed. it is absolutely ridiculous and needs to be stopped. I'm convinced the biggest wasters of the NHS precious resources are parents. My mum saw it all the time as a nurse people bringing in kids for a minor amount of discomfort. Kids get I'll they will be uncomfortable it just happens and we need to get over it.

@SmidgenofaPigeon

It’s stupid. I also had to book my whooping cough vaccine. I rang up and the receptionist told me I first would be booked in for a telephone appointment to ascertain if I needed to be seen. I argued the toss and said I did need to be seen because how do you administer a vaccine over the phone? But she wouldn’t budge. So last week I had to have a telephone appointment with the nurse who agreed that yes, I could come in in person for the vaccine. Bloody stupid.

That is an insane waste of resources.

@NotPersephone

every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

Pretty transparent passive aggressive blackmail attempt there. Put up or shut up, even if the service is dog shit and your half-dead granny with no internet access is being left for dead while her GP retires early to take advantage of more favorable tax conditions.

OP - YANBU. Far from GP-bashing, no other profession would have got away with performing this poorly for this long.

It's not blackmail. It's just the truth. We are at absolute breaking point from the demand not being met by the number of GPs around. I agree that there are not enough GPs - that's not our fault, it's successive years of underfunding and the NHS being such a rubbish employer that doctors are leaving in droves for Australia and Canada.

The public needs to take some responsibility too. I get so many calls about a two hour sore throat, for which they've taken nothing over the counter - hayfever for which nothing has been tried over the counter - muscular low back pain, again, not a single paracetamol taken. Not everything needs a GP.

@Sirzy

That article made me really angry.

Of all the people we should be telling to not seek medical attention if concerned then worried parents are not the ones to say that too.

I took Ds to a and e at 8 weeks old. I was fully expecting to be told I was being a paranoid first time Mum - infact the first dr pretty much said that - but I knew something wasn’t right. Thankfully the nurse knew there was something not right. Two weeks later and a stay in HDU later he came home but we still have issues 11 years later.

Children can deteriorate so fast that parents should be able to seek help without being made to feel bad

ill babies under 3 months always need to be seen ill kids under a year nearly always need to be seen once they are getting closer to school age, parents should be able to do some sort of home management of coughs and colds.

All A&E’s need a GP attached 24 hours a day so that those who are triaged as needing a GP, not A&E, can be signposted there.
Also, parents need teaching how to look after an unwell child and when to seek help. I see a lot of threads on here where parents don’t seem to know the basics of looking after a sick child, when years ago they would have had that knowledge passed down through the generations.

@NotPersephone

every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

Pretty transparent passive aggressive blackmail attempt there. Put up or shut up, even if the service is dog shit and your half-dead granny with no internet access is being left for dead while her GP retires early to take advantage of more favorable tax conditions.

OP - YANBU. Far from GP-bashing, no other profession would have got away with performing this poorly for this long.

Indeed. GPs everywhere calling us all liers while they split their workload between back to back patients and posting on Mumsnet to tell us to shut up already.

I can actually see both sides, there may be SOME places delivering but a larger amount who isn't.

Let's not kid ourselves It wasn't always the best service before the pandemic.

There are a couple of private GP services in my area that have been doing a roaring trade for years as the local practices cant cope with the volume of people.

GP surgeries are underfunded like most other public sector services.

Where I live GPs are resigning/being signed off due to stress and exhaustion.

My friend manages a hospital ward and he has had to close their doors to new admissions and send them to other hospitals because they don't have the staff. Several senior nurses have left recently, 30% others are off with stress.

Many years ago GP’s used to cover their own out of hours, and there was comfort knowing that they were there if you needed them.
Now it’s the anxiety of knowing whether to go to A&E or not.

Our surgery dispenses the prescriptions. We are now allowed into the dispensary to collect but for about a year we had to stand in the rain/sun outside a partly open window and shout at the gowned, masked and gloved worker inside. No privacy. And elderly people struggling to hear were shouted at to ‘Stand back!’. Ridiculous.

I think it is the inconsistencies that annoys me. A practice near me is operating pretty much as usual. Mine has been appalling. Recently found a breast lump. Had a phone appointment to determine if I needed to be seen. Then a telephone appointment just before my face to face appointment then the face to face appointment and referral. What could have been done in one face to face appointment took three appointment slots.

@Whoarethewho

Unfortunately too many parents bring their little darlings to hospital and GP when not needed. it is absolutely ridiculous and needs to be stopped. I'm convinced the biggest wasters of the NHS precious resources are parents. My mum saw it all the time as a nurse people bringing in kids for a minor amount of discomfort. Kids get I'll they will be uncomfortable it just happens and we need to get over it.

This may be the case but posts like that and articles like the bbc one always make me anxious.

My nephew had a fever and wouldn't take his milk at 6 weeks old, his mum was repeatedly batted away by 111, GP and eventually when she knew something wasn't right and took him to A&E they were about to send them home with the 'just a virus' line when he had a seizure right in front of the doctor and it transpired he had bacterial meningitis - he nearly died, was in hospital for 3 months and still at 7 has ongoing complications though compared to what might have happened they are thankfully minor.

I KNOW parents need to not take their baby for the slightest thing but at the same time I read stuff like that and think 'but what about the one time it is more serious'. My nephew had no other symptom that would distinguish from a minor virus/ temperature until he had the seizure and if he hadn't have already been in the hospital in front of a doctor at that point it might have been missed (just looked like jerking his arm) and might have been too late.

My DD had an awful virus a few weeks back and still has a hacking cough that makes her sick and wakes her up at night- I admit I've phoned the gp twice but been batted away with a sneery 'oh this is your first baby isn't it?' both times by the receptionist. But when said precious first born is wheezing and struggling for breath and not sleeping and it's gone on for 6 weeks with OTC stuff barely touching the sides I would very much appreciate someone medically trained at least listening to her chest. Luckily it has started to turn a corner slightly but if it had got even a fraction worse than it was you can bet I'd have been at A&E with her.

You’ve forgotten how hard it was to see a GP before the pandemic. Currently we have a combination of massively high demand + Total Triage (since the pandemic GPs have been told to screen all patients before arranging an appointment for them). It’s actually easier to contact a GP than before the pandemic because they’ve mostly got internet as well as phone systems. And 50% of GP consultations are face to face.

That said, GPs should help themselves by communicating more effectively with their patient lists about what does and doesn’t need to see a GP, which other HCPs people should book and when, seeing the pharmacist or whatever.

And there is the odd bad apple GP practice who seem to still not be seeing anyone. If you’ve got one of those tell your local CCG and Healthwatch: GPs are all individual businesses and you’d be surprised how easy it is for the system to not know this is happening.

"They do need to open up to walk-in queries. "
And who is going to see them? All HCP are already busy to see booked patients.
Surgery where DH works has just had 2 receptioninst leaving as they got fed up of the abuse. So guess what, it will be even more difficult to get throught to his practice.
One GP has taken early retirement. No one to replace her. One of the nurses left, no one to replace her either.
So the remaining lot are being told they are a lazy lot. Nice.

@wherewildflowersgrow

They are obviously seeing people, but the phone and email appointments are screening in the necessary patients. The rest get advice.

Here we fill in a form online then they text you to say they will phone at xyz time (when you have to be free) or the texttells you to make an appointment. When you go to the appointment bit in Patient Access it says there are telephone appointments only but none are available. Trying to phone can take literally hours - one lady phoned over 60 times before she got through. They have also issued a statement to say if you put anything critical on SM you will be removed from the Practice It absolutely ridiculous

What I want to know is why it was impossible, evidently, to deal with stuff using the Internet pre covid but it became entirely possible as soon as it suited GPs better. That's my gripe really the service, such as it is, is designed to suit the GPs rather than the patients and whether practices like it or not the NHS is free only at the point of delivery.

My SIL is a paediatrician and told me this week that children's wards are full to bursting but that lots of children are being admitted as there are lots of shitty viruses doing the rounds.

This is being exacerbated by the fact that, where I am, it's near impossible to see your GP at the moment. It's an absolute disgrace. Then you have to go through the rigmarole of testing your child for covid before they'll see you - if you do get an appointment - even when you know it's not covid they're suffering from but a childhood illness. My mother is a Practice Manager elsewhere in the country and I do appreciate that GPs and surgeries are working very hard but the system in my part of the SE where we have appalling GP:patient ratios to begin with is ridiculous.

They’re not seeing people at my surgery. I have had a problem with my knee, my gp diagnosed me over the phone 🙄 prescribed me cream and told me to take paracetamol. My knee is not getting any better it’s getting worse and she couldn’t give a crap. Luckily, through dhs work he gets BUPA cover for all of the family. I saw a consultant yesterday and have an MRI booked for next week.

Here, you have to sit on the phone line at 8am if you want any home of an apt. No other options but sit in the line, god knows where in the queue, or make 50+ attempts at call if you you keep getting cut off! Really fun when you're juggling work, and life and childcare simultaneously.

We’ve always had phone triage at ours which worked fine. Now you can’t get through on the phones at all.
It’s all online, they sent you an appointment time which has nothing to do with what time they actually ring you and if you don’t answer you have to start again. So when you are working it’s a nightmare.

DH went in 3 times in 3 weeks as they kept asking him to go in (diabetic review) and they did the same thing every single time. He didn’t really need to go in the first time but the GPs like to do it. Then he had to have his bloods taken twice as they didn’t order the right ones. Problem is he can’t speak to someone to talk about what they want - they just text him and say he must attend this appointment (he does what he’s told).

Our surgery won't see anyone over 16 without a telephone triage appointment that can be anytime in the day, so while you are in the middle of a meeting for example. The GP then says they need to see you and then books you an appointment for the following week, so you shuffle your schedule around to fit in with them. The day before this then gets cancelled at the last minute and changed to another day that you really can't do because you are working miles away. None of this is over the phone, it is all done by text messaging system that takes at least a half day to respond. Absolute shitshow. You then get asked to have a blood test, given a list of times the testing centre is open but when you go to the testing centre it is either not open at those times, or you needed an appointment which no one told you about. You finally get the blood test done and the GP says they will email you the results, which they still haven't done over a week later.

This all happened to my eldest ds last week. Our GP surgery is a shambles at the moment. Nice people, shit system. Complete waste of time and money (taxpayer money).

Ours are operating as they always have done, albeit with social distancing measures. I needed to be seen by a GP in December and got a same day appointment. I've needed blood tests and a smear and I've always been seen within a week. I went last month and could walk straight in and use the touch screen check in. It seemed like they were heading back to complete normality.

My dentist, on the other hand, has gone into hiding. I was due a check up in May 2020. I still haven't had it.

But what do you mean by an ‘official unlocking’? If demand outstrips supply, you still won’t get the appointment you want?

More judicious use of health services and by the public and better funding of GP and community care is what is needed here, not some ceremonial door unlocking!

"Data from four children's emergency departments - Leicester Royal Infirmary, Royal Hospital for Children Glasgow, Birmingham's Children's Hospital and Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool - show there were an extra 2,500 children attending in May.
Attendances in children under 15 have increased from nearly 16,000 in May 2018 to 21,046 in May 2019 and 23,661 in May 2021."

"Last month, fewer than 1% of attendances were classified as needing immediate attention."

"More than 72% - or 17,000 of the children attending - were not seriously unwell."

I understand people getting all PFB with very young babies but those figures look horrendous. They can't all be very young babies - it must be people taking older children to A&E for no good reason, too.