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Original poster

GP Surgeries are NEGLIGENT if they're not doing face to face appointments

342 replies

AmIEmptyOrNumB · 07/08/2021 18:23

My GP surgery never stopped. They just triaged so 90% by phone and those essential face to face appointments carried on but with masks etc. Why is the government not doing more about this? These Surgeries denying all face to face appointments are failing the hippocratic oath.

OP posts:
ohfourfoxache · 07/08/2021 20:07

One of the truest statements I have ever come across:

No one goes into work actively wanting to do a bad job

The Shipmans etc of this world are obviously exempt

But you won’t ordinarily find a Dr/nurse whose sole purpose is to fuck their patients over

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:08

@CuckooCuckooClock

Please stop blaming the GPs. I have several GP friends and they’ve never been so stressed. The whole system is shit because it’s so underfunded. No GP wants to send away a potentially very ill patient. GPs are under huge amounts of pressure and are terrified. Please don’t make their already impossible job any harder. The fault lies with the government not the poor doctors who are doing their best because they care. Becoming a GP is no mean feat. Any one of them could walk away and into a job with better pay, better conditions and more respect. The ones that don’t are staying in a really difficult job because they believe it’s the right thing to do. We need them to carry on.
How hard is it to ask for a urine sample? Seriously? I'd have picked up a sample bottle, dropped it back. Job done.
Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:09

@Puzzledandpissedoff

GP practices introduced telephone screening etc. to keep the most vulnerable safe

That's what my previous GP claimed - except that, as I've mentioned on here before, they were actually using the phone screening to flog private F2F appointments

Yes it was reported, and no it's not stopped, so I'm left wondering just how many others have been seized by the same notion

😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯
privateandnhsgp · 07/08/2021 20:10

@Becca19962014

Please stop with the medical advice, you're talking bollocks.

viewer.microguide.global/SCAN/SCAN#content,76dd6f46-e50c-4a9b-ac53-a6b171323561 (scroll down to first line treatment choices).

3 days of Nitrofurantoin is standard, first line treatment for most UTIs. I certainly can be given for 3 days.

ohfourfoxache · 07/08/2021 20:11

@Puzzledandpissedoff that’s disgusting - they are in breach of pretty much every guideline out there

Can I suggest going direct to GMC?

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:11

I have no faith in the local GPs anymore. None.
I've signed up for online gp services. Luckily that's an option for us.
I don't know what else to do tbh.
At least over zoom etc they can physically see you...

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:12

[quote privateandnhsgp]@Becca19962014

Please stop with the medical advice, you're talking bollocks.

viewer.microguide.global/SCAN/SCAN#content,76dd6f46-e50c-4a9b-ac53-a6b171323561 (scroll down to first line treatment choices).

3 days of Nitrofurantoin is standard, first line treatment for most UTIs. I certainly can be given for 3 days.[/quote]
Yes. I've had it for 3 days before.

Fairyliz · 07/08/2021 20:12

@TheUndoingProject

GP practices introduced telephone screening etc. to keep the most vulnerable safe during a pandemic. GP practices have remained open throughout the pandemic and face to face appointments have always been available where clinically necessary.

You seem very het up about this given your GP practice has apparently been perfectly accessible to you.

Hahahah Perhaps they have been available at your Gp but not mine
Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:13

It must be heartbreaking for GPs who are doing their best to hear these stories.

Daphnise · 07/08/2021 20:14

I love the new excuse from GP apologists: "A refusal to see you is for your own protection..."
So it's not just GPs avoiding patients in closed and locked surgeries after all!
Having said that a refusal to see is for your own good, they then will go on, almost certainly to claim "But we have always been working as normal seeing patients".
The sooner these GPs go the better.

privateandnhsgp · 07/08/2021 20:14

Whilst she may have had poor care overall, they were right not to dipstick.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927195/UTI_diagnostic_flowchart_NICE-October_2020-FINAL.pdf

Page 8...

Diangled · 07/08/2021 20:15

I can only speak of our experiences at our surgery & they’ve been dreadful.
DH died in March at home from cancer. I had to stand and beg in the surgery back in January for a GP to see him as we were just not coping. He was deteriorating rapidly & ironically was being seen by the nurse for bloods who agreed the gp should see him. They wouldn’t. Even though I’d had to practically carry him to the car. Eventually the GP did allow us in to see them. DH was admitted to a hospice that same day. We were on our knees.
When he was bed bound at home with district nurses requesting a GP visit they’d send a nurse practitioner, who was able to prescribe, just not the medication DH needed. What a waste of everyone’s time. The district nurse team were at the end of their tether too with it.

Since he’s died I’ve asked for a f2f for myself as at times I’ve just not coped. They will do a telephone appointment only. I can’t be stood with my children, shopping etc when speaking about dealing with the death of my husband coupled with perimenopause. Nurses, physios, midwives etc are all back F2f. I can’t be convinced this system is working for me or my family.

privateandnhsgp · 07/08/2021 20:15

Page 9 actually!

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:18

@privateandnhsgp

Whilst she may have had poor care overall, they were right not to dipstick.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927195/UTI_diagnostic_flowchart_NICE-October_2020-FINAL.pdf

Page 8...

That's interesting. It was the first thing they did in a&e! They sent it off to the path lab to grow whatever it was in there. She has had 4 days of IV antibiotics and had 5 days of oral cefalexin to take now shes home. She has a bladder prolapse. Surely a simple urine dip is indicated in such circumstances? The a&e Dr said her sample "had loads of nasties" in it.
Puzzledandpissedoff · 07/08/2021 20:19

@ohfourfoxache The GMC have been approached - that didn't make any difference either

TheGenealogist · 07/08/2021 20:19

I managed to get a face to face appointment for a blood test no questions asked - but that's because however skilled the phlebotomist, they can't take blood over the phone.

I really need to see the GP to discuss going on HRT and I'd rather do that face to face. Our GP is still locked, you have to buzz to get in, and stand in the rain to wait for prescription to be brought out to you. Big pop up messages about Covid on the website, recorded message on the phone line, posters covering the door.

They might well be open and seeing people, but the message they are giving out through their communications is COVID COVID COVID STAY AWAY AND DO NOT BOTHER US.

It's ridiculous.

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:19

Her discharge papers say she had nephritis.

LakieLady · 07/08/2021 20:19

My surgery has been doing telephone triage and telephone consultations since long before Covid.

I find it very convenient. No schlepping through traffic to the surgery, no nightmare trying to find somewhere to park (at £1.20 for 20 mins!), no taking time off work, no sitting for ages in the waiting room with loads of sniffling adults and screaming kids (not an issue atm, but in pre-Covid times, it could be hellish) and they know I may not always be able to answer the phone, so if I'm driving or on a work call, they just keep trying till they get hold of me.

They've been seeing people who need to be examined throughout the pandemic, although during the lockdowns, only a few people at a time could attend, and if the waiting room was at capacity, you had to wait outside under a gazebo in what used to be the doctors' car park.

I've had to attend twice, for blood to be taken, during lockdown and it was fine.

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:20

[quote Puzzledandpissedoff]@ohfourfoxache The GMC have been approached - that didn't make any difference either[/quote]
Media????

Carthief · 07/08/2021 20:22

To be honest I’m still not over the conversation I had with the GP receptionist beginning of March last year.

Having had flu symptoms, sore chest, difficulty breathing (not terrible, just tightness) I called up asking for a new inhaler prescription, got told I couldn’t have one until I had a review because I hadn’t had an asthma check in two years;

Great, fine, can I book an appointment?
No, your symptoms might be COVid, you can’t come to the surgery until we know it’s not COVid.
Also fine, so how do I get a test to prove it isn’t (or is)
Have you been in contact with a positive case or been to Italy in the last 10 days?
No
Oh, you don’t qualify for a test then.
Right…so how do I get an appointment so I can get an inhaler?

I think I hung up in frustration in the end.

ohfourfoxache · 07/08/2021 20:22

@Puzzledandpissedoff @Mrs08 media is probably a good idea…..

….or I would hope your CCG has something to say about it. Would definitely be worth getting in touch with the Primary Care Team so that they are aware

privateandnhsgp · 07/08/2021 20:23

MSU and culture is definitely indicated, but a dipstick is unreliable and lots of older people have bacteria in their urine that is not causing an issue.

And if they had dipped it and it showed bacteria, they'd have prescribed...... nitrofurantoin.

So you could argue that if they've had seen her face to face they'd have realised that she was sick and admitted her earlier - absolutely fair point - but in terms of a UTI looked at in isolation their end treatment (in a narrow sense) is appropriate.

iklboo · 07/08/2021 20:23

@Puzzledandpissedoff - the GMC may not have taken action if it was the policy or drive by the practice rather than individual GPs off their own bat. The GMC has no jurisdiction over practices. That's for the local CCG or CQC in the first instance. If they find it's the doctors trying to exploit patients then the GMC can investigate.

Mrs08 · 07/08/2021 20:23

@Diangled

I can only speak of our experiences at our surgery & they’ve been dreadful. DH died in March at home from cancer. I had to stand and beg in the surgery back in January for a GP to see him as we were just not coping. He was deteriorating rapidly & ironically was being seen by the nurse for bloods who agreed the gp should see him. They wouldn’t. Even though I’d had to practically carry him to the car. Eventually the GP did allow us in to see them. DH was admitted to a hospice that same day. We were on our knees. When he was bed bound at home with district nurses requesting a GP visit they’d send a nurse practitioner, who was able to prescribe, just not the medication DH needed. What a waste of everyone’s time. The district nurse team were at the end of their tether too with it.

Since he’s died I’ve asked for a f2f for myself as at times I’ve just not coped. They will do a telephone appointment only. I can’t be stood with my children, shopping etc when speaking about dealing with the death of my husband coupled with perimenopause. Nurses, physios, midwives etc are all back F2f. I can’t be convinced this system is working for me or my family.

I'm so very sorry for your loss x
ohfourfoxache · 07/08/2021 20:24

@Carthief typical “computer says no” answers there

If it happens again then ask to speak to the practice manager