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

[AmIEmptyOrNumB]

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.

@alterego2 it’s getting harder and harder to provide what would universally be accepted to be “good practice”

@frumpety

How many people would be happy to speak to a trained HCP who isn't a Doctor about their health issue as part of a triage process, much like when you call 111 ? Thinking about people who might struggle with the online consult process. So you ring the GP and you get options like routine appointment , prescriptions or medication queries and initial telephone consult, which would involve a over the phone triage assessment much like an online consult.

I think it depends if they actually read the patient notes and medication history...

I think that there has been a systemic failure in many ways.

COVID petrified many people into thinking ‘safety’ meant no physical contact, and some GPs were beguiled by a technological ‘solution’ to a problem of too much paperwork, too many patients and too little time.

Some GPs , however, have been heroic and they should be saluted. At the other end of the spectrum, on the other hand, some have been downright lazy.

Really, the government need to give clear guidance as to what GPs are required to do now, and enforce it. At the moment there is no consistency across the service.

We do also need to home grow more GPs and recruit from abroad in the interim (although the ‘EU’ solution of allowing poorer nations to train the GPs only for richer EU nations to recruit them is pretty morally bankrupt).

@ohfourfoxache - fair point. I can see that the numbers reporting good experiences will decrease (fairly rapidly) over time. I have huge sympathy for anyone involved in the system - it must be soul destroying

I don't know who said about the nitrofuritonin, I was going by the patient leaflet which says 7-10 days for uti that I have on standby just in case. Of course it may have changed since that was written!

Don't know what happened re person in pharmacy, it's not the first time I'm aware of it happening, but first time for mental health.

It's impossible to book a face to face appointment here, with the exception of people like DS2 who needs his height, weight and blood pressure checked once a month because of the meds he's on.

I am a GP. I have worked so fucking hard over the last 18 months. I normally work hard, but apart from a month or so where nobody wanted to ‘bother us’ demand has gone up. We have in many cases delivered the COVID vaccination programme (certainly been the case locally) on top of our day to day work, implemented huge changes in technology to try and facilitate access for our patients, introduced the unlimited capacity system of e-consult alongside our existing appointments, and kept up with the shit show that is the government ‘announcements’ with very little notice. Our doors have never been closed, but the entire nation seems to think I’ve sat on my backside twiddling my thumbs and sending people to the ED because I can’t be arsed.
I wonder why no one wants to be a GP.

I didn't say about Nitro but had a google as curious:

bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/nitrofurantoin.html

National guidelines differ from information leaflet.

I’ve been waiting 2 weeks and 4 days for a gp to ring me ‘within 24 hours’. That was already after a gp called me AFTER the 48 hours I was told originally passed and I missed the (post 48 hours) three calls they made for that initial appointment - all of which took place within TWO minutes.

Meanwhile, because I’m lucky enough to have insurance through work, I’ve spoken to a private gp who told me that I may find myself in an emergency situation and have since seen a specialist who has booked me in for surgery in a few weeks.

Negligence at its best in SE London. I always new i needed to be examined in person but they can’t even get the telephone triage done. Apparently the initial appointment not taking place was my fault - even though it was after 48 hours and all within a time when I could literally have popped to the loo.

Another issue is that mums medication keeps being changed without her being told.

It's OK because I can show her how to use the new inhalers etc but it must be really confusing for some.

The hospital have taken her off a medication she's been on for 8 years after a cardiomyopathy as they said its "not clinically indicated".

Fair enough but why didn't the gp take her off it?

She's utterly confused and fed up.

@PaddingtonsHat

I am a GP. I have worked so fucking hard over the last 18 months. I normally work hard, but apart from a month or so where nobody wanted to ‘bother us’ demand has gone up. We have in many cases delivered the COVID vaccination programme (certainly been the case locally) on top of our day to day work, implemented huge changes in technology to try and facilitate access for our patients, introduced the unlimited capacity system of e-consult alongside our existing appointments, and kept up with the shit show that is the government ‘announcements’ with very little notice. Our doors have never been closed, but the entire nation seems to think I’ve sat on my backside twiddling my thumbs and sending people to the ED because I can’t be arsed. I wonder why no one wants to be a GP.

Sadly not all surgeries have been open and not all gps have been working hard.

Surely you must see that from this thread alone??

Or do you think we are lying/exaggerating?

I think it depends if they actually read the patient notes and medication history...

If they are in your GP surgery they should be able to access both. So what medications you are currently taking, if you have any allergies, current medical issues and recent appointments with specialties and what the outcome of those were.

I would routinely thank my surgery pre covid. I even put my GP and surgery forward for awards. Never again. I feel a fool for ever doing so. I've no chance now with social services because of them and no I can't change surgery.

@frumpety

I think it depends if they actually read the patient notes and medication history...

If they are in your GP surgery they should be able to access both. So what medications you are currently taking, if you have any allergies, current medical issues and recent appointments with specialties and what the outcome of those were.

Well the Dr who spoke to my mum didn't seem to do either....

@PaddingtonsHat

Mate, you're wasting your time. Look after yourself and your family, there's no point killing yourself to prop up an inadequate system and the public will moan either way.

Deliver your contract, nothing more or less, and spend any remaining time with people that appreciate you.

God forbid the public moan about their loved ones suffering/dying.

What plebs we are!

@Mrs08

God forbid the public moan about their loved ones suffering/dying.

What plebs we are!

You can moan about it but don’t blame GPs as a group for issues that are very much outside of their control.

@DamnUserName21

I didn't say about Nitro but had a google as curious:

bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/nitrofurantoin.html

National guidelines differ from information leaflet.

Ah. Thankyou. It's me misunderstanding the treatment I come under for my needs and adults generally 🙄

My apologies to the person who corrected me!

PaddingtonsHat Absolutely. I had my daughter on the phone in tears throughout her 45 minute drive home yesterday. She thinks she might want to give up being a GP having nearly finished her first year.

She was two hours late leaving because all her admin time had been used for patient contact. She was going home to work some more at 8pm, having started at 7am. She’s worried about complaints and referrals to GMC because people are being so rude and unpleasant.

Her practice has APNs and a pharmacist but they add to her workload not diminish it because they see people and decide they need a GP to review them. The F2 also adds to her workload. People have no idea. The Gaps weren’t even given PPE to start with. We had to source FPP3 masks for use when certifying deaths in care homes or seeing acutely unwell patients.

The negligence is the government not resourcing healthcare properly. It’s also the fault of all those who voted Brexit and made our many European medics feel unwelcome here.

@weakpanda

The only issue I have with the telephone appointments given by my surgery is they never state a time, just "Dr will call you during afternoon surgery anytime 12-6pm". So I'm expected to stay home all afternoon and wait for a call? Or discuss my suicidal thoughts while doing the Tesco shop where everyone can hear???

This! I had to cancel a dental appointment so that I could wait in for the surgery to ring me back. My.mum is 86. There has been no regular care like it was pre-pandemic. She used to have bloods and BP done regularly. They have just forgotten about her. I tried to phone on her behalf. Ringing out. Managed to get through a few days later. Nurse saw her but told her she had 20 mins and no time to look at her feet ( she is diabetic) said she was best going private for podiatry!

@Mrs08

God forbid the public moan about their loved ones suffering/dying.

What plebs we are!

The problem is that the public moan either way, justified or not.

It's time for GPs to stop killing themselves TRYING (and failing) to hold primary care together.

Sorry 10 mins . Not 20

In her practice, one salaried GP has now resigned to leave medicine altogether and one is moving into private practice where the workload feels safer.

I recently did the online consultation thing, that told me to call the dr, all fine and I got through in about 20 minutes.
Then told I'd get a call from GP, no worries I managed to answer in time.
I think what irritates me is that I work in a variable mobile reception area. So in certain areas I get no signal. If I'd been in a no signal area I'd have had to go through the whole process again in two days.
This isnt sustainable in the long run. I was told that it may be a chest infection and maybe I'd need to go in, but no quicker way to get through reception offered and another days wait if I'd had to do that.

I'm generally ok with phone consults but I did ask for a set time when i knew I'd have reception and the receptionist kind of hissed air through teeth (like the boiler man when he needs to give you really bad news) and said no way, if you miss the call you have to try again tomorrow.

But I'm ill and need a dr, if I leave it 3 or 4 days I'll need a and e.

@privateandnhsgp,

‘The public’ (I.e not me) is such an othering word.

You are not making a good case for GPs, regardless of the systemic failure or the pressure they are under.

A little empathy for patients, generally scared and ill, would not come amiss.