Unlock the doors please, GP surgeries

[Tiari]

to think, if restrictions are lifted on July 19, then GP surgeries will open their doors?
We should be able to walk in freely and up to the reception desk for queries, appointments etc?

Then go and train as a doctor and take the ten years years to qualify.

Lol, no thanks. I would absolutely suck. I’m just saying that you can’t say 70-100k is shit pay for 50 hour weeks - it’s actually pretty bloody decent in my opinion, and thousands of people in the U.K. work way more for way less. There’s no need to be rude!

@Pepsi9090 spot on.

Back of the envelope plan to become a GP for those who'd like to:

(Not considering the 4A*s at A-level, or the other hoops to get through in order to get to the point of medical school if you come at it from a different direction - as a graduate/professional entry you would probably pay for preparation courses, exams etc etc)

5-6 years of University. About £10K fees per year. Don't pay fees the last year. Cost of living on top (in a University town). Add £10K per year. Pay extra if you want to add a 'science' year (BSc). Have to commute to placements. May or may not be compensated for that (if not, pay for your room, and pay for where you need to stay on placement). Academic year is longer, but get a job in holidays and work in the evenings when you can at university.

Complete University: pay to move to a random place that you've been allocated a job in without family support. Pay for your GMC license, and insurance. (Sucks up about £500 or so out of the first pay packet). Pay for your professional exams to allow you to apply for your next stage of training (varies depending on whether you want to be a GP, or a psychiatrist, or a hospital doctor or surgeon - probably around £1-1.5K to do the set of exams). Fail them because revising whilst doing 70 hours a week switching between days and nights is hard. Pay for them again. Pay for a course so you don't fail them again (lets add an underestimate of £2-3K for this).

Apply for GP training. Get sent to a random part of the country away from your support. Self fund some more 'essential courses' and life support training. Pay some more insurance. Pay some more GMC fees. Note - not earning the 'mega bucks' just yet, and still paying that cracking student loan.

Do this for a minimum of 3 years, then start work as a GP, hopefully able to stick around in one place for a while.

At any point - exams, job applications expect to have hiccups. Sadly I think that the UCAS deadline has already closed this year, but for those who are interested then applications close on 15th October 2021 for Autumn 2022 entry).

There's a good breakdown of the costs in this article (although I'm pretty sure it includes cost of living which confuses matters somewhat).

www.healthmatters.org.uk/uncategorized/the-true-cost-of-becoming-a-general-practitioner/

I don't doubt that the system is not working, but the people who are in it have committed so much from themselves over many years. I have GP friends, I watch them try so hard to paper over the cracks, and become unwell themselves with stress.

My GP has already posted on FB that they have no intention of reopening the waiting room/reception for the foreseeable future.

@kashazzam I initially though 'spot on' though PPs and Lord Bethell have convinced me. I think the best solution for recruitment would be a pay cut, obviously, and a badge that says 'lucky to have a job' for all GPs and HCPS.

We need to take a leaf out of the PM's book and think out of the box and take a buccaneering attitude. It's not the system's fault, it's the fault of all the Drs and nurses who should just work harder. For less. For free. Pay to work (though arguably they already do in the later stages of their medical school).

I'm still triangulating the freedom day ending of mask-wearing, Delta variant and possibly more vulnerable patients in the practice (though we have never not seen patients face to face). What could go wrong?

@ivefgottwins I really think yours is a case where you should go to A&E, needs to be seen quite quickly I would have thought?

This thread's been a right mixed bag, hasn't it? I've even had bother getting in to my opticians and then just about shoved out of the door after the appointment!!

My GP has already posted on FB that they have no intention of reopening the waiting room/reception for the foreseeable future

Why not? Have they given a reason @NoBetterthanSheShouldBe ?

@Tiari for the protection of their vulnerable patients as their waiting room is small (some of their waiting rooms are in corridors).

I understand the cost and effort to become a gp - however I'm curious, what if your gp qualified overseas? My doctors is mostly made up of older Indian men, with certificates behind desks from the 60s and 70s. Would they have to have undergone the same in depth and costly training as in the UK?

Regardless, I was given a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes over text 3 weeks ago, told to expect a call from a diabetes nurse. Still waiting, still chasing, I've emailed and made approx 80 calls a day from 8am, still unable to get through. Attempting to manage it myself by googling what to do.

Our GP has 'a new way of working' now (said the receptionist to me). Which is that you ring and ask for an appointment (after you have listened to the 10 minute recorded message which tells you about their covid systems etc). Then they post you a questionnaire out and you fill it in with your symptoms and post it back to them and then they decide what the next move is.

When you say “post” do you mean literally send it out through the Royal Mail, and you then send it back the same way?? Just to get a phone call with the GP? That is shocking and I refuse to believe there is a single good reason that patients with access to email cannot do it via email instead. Plenty of other surgeries are doing forms online.

As an update I finally got to see a Gp face to face - my breast lump is a cyst which is now badly infected - I asked her if there was any intention to return to the old way of working - even booking an appointment on the app would be preferable to the 90 minutes in a telephone queue to then try and negotiate a doctor calling you back....she said no!

No doors open at my doctor's surgery. And frankly, you're made to feel like a bloody nuisance if you have to go near the place.

I know they're busy and stressed but when you're not feeling well it doesn't help to be snapped at by the person who answers the door, as I was on Tuesday.

ivfgottwins
Glad you finally got to see a doctor and I hope the cyst clears up quickly.
Worrying though, if you'd been seen quicker it probably wouldn't be so badly infected?
Thank goodness it wasn't something worse.
I don't suppose she explained why they're not going back to the old way of working?

Just tried to ring my doctor's surgery and got a recorded message saying they're closed. Only they aren't, because they open all day until 6.30.

Is this the sort of 'service' some of us need to get used to from now on?

You can't get an appointment, you can't see a doctor face to face and you most definitely cannot enter the building.

How am I supposed to find out what my test results are if no one will speak to me? Utterly ridiculous.

All GP surgeries could close tomorrow due to staff burnout and inadequate funding and the Tory party would still poll as the highest party.

That's the problem.

VariantL1130

Yes, I suspect you're right.

I really don't get it, but then I didn't vote for the useless bunch of shysters.

I've never understood their popularity and never will.

I would open tomorrow if I could and reserve telephone appointments....NOT TRIAGE...they are two different things, to follow ups for a few problems.

We used to see 12 patients per 2 hour surgery...now it's 9 as we need time to take the history in the first appointment then another 10 minutes to review and examine them and clean the room and our equipment afterwards.

I'm getting quite good now at looking through my appointments and getting people to come straight in at the telephone appointment time (yes we give a time) if it's obvious they need to be seen.

Gives me much more time and I am far more efficient as this is the way I gave worked for 30 years.

We cannot open up totally as we would have sick people coming in at the same time as immunosuppressed patients waiting for bloods etc. Our waiting rooms cannot cope with that number of people and I'd hate someone to catch it in the waiting room. I'm in Edinburgh at the COVID levels are sky high.

But when Nicola says we can open I will be!

That said ....the demand is horrendous. I collapsed in tears a few months ago because as well as my surgery I would have 20-30 other calls to do as well and trying to prioritize and work out which ones were urgent and which ones weren't was so difficult. This was per half day, not per day. That along with prescription requests and reviews and all the mail and results I am really burnt out...it's horrible.
We have had half our reception staff isolating... fortunately our manager could work from home as she was off 10 days isolating then got covid on day 10 so off another 10 days. Our staff have been shouted at and sworn at and I've had patients that I'm trying to help threaten to punch me in the face!!

I am retiring at 60 in 2 years time.

I do get paid well. I work 5 "sessions" a week. Usually 7.30-1.30 on my half days and 7.30-6.30 on my full day. But the responsibility is huge and every time you open notes you are making a decision that could affect someone's health or life.

There do seem to be some awful surgeries but there are some excellent ones too.

I feel really sorry for patients. And I understand their frustrations....I have some of my own health problems just now and it's so frustrating getting appointments...though my GP practice is good and they don't know I'm a GP when I phone..

I do wonder if some of these GPs are so burnt out they just can't face the work...that's how I felt for a month back in February....so they should take time off but that would just compound the problem.

Absolutely ridiculous that GPS not seeing ppl. Everyone else is back at work. I have severe Asthma and respiratory condition was shielding on advice from CMO. I am now back at work. Tbh my patience with NHS wearing thin.

@Tiari

ivfgottwins Glad you finally got to see a doctor and I hope the cyst clears up quickly. Worrying though, if you'd been seen quicker it probably wouldn't be so badly infected? Thank goodness it wasn't something worse. I don't suppose she explained why they're not going back to the old way of working?

Yea the locum doctor said I was at risk of sepsis had I had to wait much longer

She didn't really say why the GP managers didn't want to go back to the ""old" way - suspect money plays a huge part though