To think GPs should do their job

[Wotnokids]

Just heard the news that £250million is to be made available to GPs to 'increase the amount of face to face appointments'. AIBU to think this is just extra cash for doing their job?

@Awalkintime

Well we knew this was going to happen. Drs told us this about 5 years ago. They are working - to excess of 100 hours a week with some, covering multiple surgeries.

Everyone on here makes things a race to the bottom about how hard they have it and this is why we have ignored this for so long. When Drs said they were having it tough, everyone chirped up and said so do I. Then they said we will lose lots of Drs - many said well go and do another job then.

So they have done.....reap what you sow. You made this by ignoring them. Suck it up.

Precisely! I suspect the very people who told NHS staff to stop complaining and be grateful for their jobs, are the the very ones who are now whinging about the lack of access to healthcare.

@welliesarefuntowear

"How possible would it be to have nurses doing the triage instead of the receptionists?"

We don't triage. We take the information down and put it into the booking. Got a sick child with a high temperature you've been up all night with? Wouldn't you want the doctor to be ringing you first? Because that's what they do. Because if you tell us we can tell the doctor and they can get you down to be seen.

It's not rocket science what we do. I'm so sick of hearing that we somehow decide how the doctor spends their time. When you're looking at an ever growing appointment book. Maybe you've added four or five times to the end. Because Mrs Smiths probably got cellulitis. Because she's told me the receptionist who knows fuck all that her legs are red, hot and hard. That Mrs Brown has got a urine infection. God they're fucking horrible. Bring a sample down. We will get the nurse to test it and send off to the lab.

But I'm sorry. If the list has been added to extensively. You might have to wait for a call for that niggling issue that's been bothering you for weeks. Of course it needs a call back. But the urgent stuff has to be done. And it's shit. We know. But the GP workload is massive. We don't gatekeep. We try to facilitate and advocate.

But of course. We are not medically trained. It would make much more sense to get a qualified nurse to answer the phones. That's definitely the best use of their time

It will be the very same people. They feel able to dismiss people's concerns when they say their working conditions are extreme. They feel they have to compare all the time and can't just acknowledge when people say they are struggling. If people say they are struggling with the expectations we should listen and not dismiss it. If we had worked to support Drs at the time and said this is unacceptable expecting a workload like this, it might've helped support change for working conditions and encouraged more to stay and encouraged others to join.

We always go on about people speaking up about things that are impacting mentally on them. When they do we dismiss them. We need to start listening and supporting people in roles where expectations are extreme and thinking of ways to encourage the government to change this for the better. It will help retain staff and make conditions better for new workers coming into the profession. At the moment it is Drs but if we carry on ignoring this, the impact will start to happen on other professions too. Teaching being another example.

@welliesarefuntowear

"How possible would it be to have nurses doing the triage instead of the receptionists?"

We don't triage. We take the information down and put it into the booking. Got a sick child with a high temperature you've been up all night with? Wouldn't you want the doctor to be ringing you first? Because that's what they do. Because if you tell us we can tell the doctor and they can get you down to be seen.

It's not rocket science what we do. I'm so sick of hearing that we somehow decide how the doctor spends their time. When you're looking at an ever growing appointment book. Maybe you've added four or five times to the end. Because Mrs Smiths probably got cellulitis. Because she's told me the receptionist who knows fuck all that her legs are red, hot and hard. That Mrs Brown has got a urine infection. God they're fucking horrible. Bring a sample down. We will get the nurse to test it and send off to the lab.

But I'm sorry. If the list has been added to extensively. You might have to wait for a call for that niggling issue that's been bothering you for weeks. Of course it needs a call back. But the urgent stuff has to be done. And it's shit. We know. But the GP workload is massive. We don't gatekeep. We try to facilitate and advocate.

But of course. We are not medically trained. It would make much more sense to get a qualified nurse to answer the phones. That's definitely the best use of their time

Definitely this! Thank you!

Please listen to this. It will give you an insight to what is happening in GP land at present.

@Wotnokids GPs do so much more than face to face appointments - it's not that simple. I doubt very much that any of this money is going to go directly into GPs pockets.

I think this is a great idea, more GPs can only benefit society as a whole. I think the way they have been operating during COVID hasn't been explained to the public very well & has caused resentment. People also seem to think GPs should know every diagnosis for every illness on the planet. Really pleased to hear they will recieve more funding.

Fudgein - the money won’t improve the numbers of GP’s. The population has increased, GP’s are leaving in every increasing numbers, it takes 10 years to train as a doctor and become a GP and the government have failed (repeatedly) to recruit the numbers promised from overseas.

I think and correct me if I'm wrong the funding roughly equates to £8000 per practice for the year. That would roughly equate to a £1 per patient where I work. I suspect the money will be used to improve online services and that is where the push will be.

I know receptionists dont triage. I phoned for an appointment and said it could wait, was given an appointment in three days time. Half an hour later the GP rang to ask me about my symptoms and then said she needed to examine me in person, could I come in. It was the GP that triaged and decided to ring me back.

[quote TravelLost]@FAD2016 did these people know how the NHS app is working and what you can do with it?

Pre covid, my surgery was using a different system which was made redundant with covid. You could book appointment, look at your test results etc…
I assumed this had just disappeared with covid until I read on here that the nhs app had basically replace the old system for most the stuff. But I haven’t seen any article, any information at the surgery (posters etc…) about it. How can we then expect people to just know???

Maybe the first step is to do a campaign of information before telling everyone they are time wasters.[/quote]
Many GP surgeries simply don't use all the facilities available via the online systems. All I can do on any app, whether it;s "patient access" or the NHS app or "my GP" is order repeat prescriptions. Nothing else has been activated by the surgery, no way of sending messages nor booking appointments. That's the problem really, the lack of consistency between GP surgeries, in that some have embraced the apps and let you book appointments, send messages, etc but others havn't.

@Badbadbunny GPs need to decide to do what works best for them. Just as schools and other services do. I would be against a one size fits all.

Our GP surgery has held face to face appointments throughout the pandemic. Yes, they were triaged, but anyone who needed a face to face appointment got one.

My Mum needed two. One for vaginal bleeding- she's 78 - and another for suspected DVT when her leg swelled up. She was given same day appointments and referred to hospital for both issues. The care she was given was excellent. Absolutely no complaints.

I however had a phone consultation for HRT. I didn't need to be seen in person. Spoke to the GP and submitted my blood pressure reading via email. No problem.

My son is under the care of a consultant endocrinologist following thyroid cancer and previous childhood cancer, which caused the thyroid cancer. He has regular phone consultations. His care hasn't been compromised in the slightest by his appointments being held by phone. He's currently on a new medication regime that was all arranged via phone consultation.

The simple fact is that we don't have enough GPs. No amount of government breast beating or trying to blame current GPs for the situation changes that fact. It is the government that has underfunded the NHS and that wants to privatise it.

Wake up people. This is exactly what the Conservative government did to the rail industry when it was publicly owned. Underfunded it, ran it down until it became a national joke and then privatisation was the great solution. This is where we are headed with the NHS.

And God help us then.

I agree, they are running it into the ground but Labour did the same, massive cuts to services and new policies to cover their arseholes so they are all a much of a muchness.

I worked in the nhs when labour came in, in 1997. The sense of optimism was amazing. And we got funding, we could actually do stuff. So I'm not sure wher you got that from Awalkintime. Any facts to go with the statement? And btw I'm fairly agnostic when it comes to political parties.

Thought some might enjoy this.

twitter.com/LBC/status/1448962003989635096?t=F5L7VdwpquUFe9fsWOjFOg&s=19

www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-may-not-telling-the-whole-story-on-nhs-funding

@Awalkintime nhs funding grew under labour - see under claim 2.

@julieca

And God help us then.

Absolutely.

The average monthly premium for medical insurance in the USA is $495. Which equates to about £360. How many people in the UK can afford to pay that every month?

Whilst some US citizens get medical cover as part of their employee benefits many do not. I haven't got a spare £700 a month for me and DH. Do you?

And then you are in the position where employees in an insurance company get to decide whether the treatment your consultant recommends is approved. Life saving treatment can be refused based on costs rather than clinical outcomes.

Giving birth in the USA costs about $13k - Birth Medical Bill Here in the UK I didn't pay a penny more than I did in tax and NI. Is this really where we want to go?

Stop falling for the government propaganda about GPs. They are doing their absolute best whilst the government starve the NHS of funds. Do you really want us to move to the US system? Have you got £8K spare each year to pay for the medical insurance for you and your OH? And do you really want someone in an insurance firm having the deciding vote as to whether your DC can have the life saving treatment that their consultant recommends?

This is exactly where we are heading and this is exactly what this government wants. We have to resist this.

@Awalkintime

I agree, they are running it into the ground but Labour did the same, massive cuts to services and new policies to cover their arseholes so they are all a much of a muchness.

That is not true at all. Can you please provide some evidence to support your post?

They might've increased funding but they weren't spent on the right things. They were spent on managers to manage the managers. The frontline services didn't get it. They cut ALL A n E services near my area and cut countless other services such as maternity and paediatrics. There were huge issues in my area as a result so yes it is fact based.

That just sounds like your local trust was shit. It wasn't the same everywhere. You can't really blame the Labour government for your trust spending funds they were given in the way they did. If they had specified where the money had to be spent they'd have been vilified for that.

The government gave them money. They didn't spend it in the right areas. I don't see how that is down to the government to be honest.

What area do you live in the UK @Awalkintime? Because unless you live somewhere spectacularly different to the rest of the country that's not true,

@Theworldisfullofgs

What area do you live in the UK *@Awalkintime*? Because unless you live somewhere spectacularly different to the rest of the country that's not true,

Honestly, I wouldn't bother. It's all bullshit.

Labour did not make further massive cuts to the NHS.

NHS Labour Spending

It is in Lancashire. Burnley, Chorley and Rochdale A n E were closed.

I know that is somewhere spectacularly different to the rest of the UK and largely ignored in politics. My local A n E closed. The nearest one is 30 minutes away. The old one was 5 minutes away. No paediatrics either near us now. They closed the wards in our area and so there are no services now unless its a drive out of town. No it isn't bullshit BelindaBumcrack Labour were just as shit as Tories.

I didn't say they spent less, I said they made cuts to services.