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?

I am a GP.
I get to work at 8 am and leave usually about 8pm.
I see 30 people a day and do about 3-4 hrs paperwork.
I have good bladder control as I have learnt to hold on.
I have a 20 minute break for lunch.
I am utterly, utterly exhausted.
I love my patients, I consider my job an honour.
I couldn’t work any harder if I wanted to.

This doesn't match up with my experience. Can't get a face to face appointment and no adequate reason as to why .

The demand for GP services has risen hugely in the pandemic. Without phone calls , econsult etc we would never get through it all.
If we all reverted back to seeing ALL patients face to face the editing times for GP services would be months !
I have seen patients Face to face throughout the pandemic ( Nurse practitioner) but my clinic day may consist of 60 phone calls, 15 email consultations and 10 face to face. If the 60 calls and 15 econsults were face to face it would take me days to do that clinic!

My cousins wife was a GP, she worked 3.5 days a week in the surgery (12 hour days), she then lectured (because you know, GPs need training). She retrained and went back to hospital based work, she now works shorter shifts, has breaks, is paid better and gets a better pension, she also suffers less abuse from patients.

@Maryfloppins

The demand for GP services has risen hugely in the pandemic. Without phone calls , econsult etc we would never get through it all. If we all reverted back to seeing ALL patients face to face the editing times for GP services would be months ! I have seen patients Face to face throughout the pandemic ( Nurse practitioner) but my clinic day may consist of 60 phone calls, 15 email consultations and 10 face to face. If the 60 calls and 15 econsults were face to face it would take me days to do that clinic!

My friend who is a GP said the same recently, that they don't know how to switch back to face to face with the volume of cases they need to get through, the maths just doesn't add up.

I'm a paramedic and have been considering doing my masters in advanced practice for a while and it just isn't appealing at the moment. So much time pressure and so much responsibility making big decisions without getting to set eyes on the patient. Scary stuff.

@brittleheadgirl

My job is 'endlessly exhausting' I'm an early years teacher, in a large, very diverse inner city school. I'm paid at least, half maybe a third what a gp earns. The public are tired of gps still not returning to 'normal' and still not offering face to face appointments. I'm not surprised that people are angry. I like many have worked face to face throughout the pandemic and for a large part of it I was unvaccinated too.

Public facing / public sector too. Work FT earning less than half what a GP earns. My sector is in its knees too and also hated by the DM but I too feel angry with the lack of service from my GP. I can’t get an appointment

What patients want and what patients need doesn’t always match up.

Add in staff shortages, added pressures, Covid isolations of staff, bounce back from secondary care, massively increased demand and a complete lack of governmental support, planning and organisation and it’s an utter shitshow.

Oh and I’ve worked in 5 practices in my primary care career and not one had a GP earning £100k.

There are thousands fewer full time equivalent GPs than 5 years ago, despite repeated promises by the government to increase numbers. GPs are doing 250,000 more appointments per week than before the pandemic, and the majority are face to face. More patients are satisfied now with the types of appointment on offer than pre-pandemic (according to ipsos-Mori). There absolutely is a concerted media campaign against GPs currently which suits the government as they need someone to take blame for the situation they have helped create.
Of course if you want more doctors, more physios, more on the day appointments with clinicians these need paying for. The government chooses to spend far far less on primary care than other comparable countries, then encourages people to blame ‘workshy’ GPs who are actually working 12 hour days in an increasingly stressful and exhausting role.
The average GP works 40 hours a week which may not sound like much but that will cover a huge range of those with small children, disabilities, those working shorter hours to protect their own mental health or recover from burn out. If the job is that easy for such good money why isn’t everyone working 60 hour weeks?

I’m really not sure what people think is happening here. Do you all think they are sat in the surgery just not doing anything? Really?

Or do you think they’re doing probably double the work dealing with telephone consults AND physical appointments so that vulnerable people aren’t all crammed into a waiting room next to each other and someone who statistically probably has Covid?

All white being physically and verbally abused?

FFS. Have a fuckng biscuit.

I’m sorry, but working long hours in a school or as supermarket worker is not the same, no one dies if you fuck up.

What happened to be kind? Heartless arseholes.

No amount of extra money is going to make more doctors magically appear.

Before Covid, there was a chronic shortage of GPs and now it's worse, thanks to Brexit and sheer lack of students willing to go into general practice.

It's hard, thankless work with long hours and a need for constant updates and training, which they have to pay for.

A few facts might help. Look at Dr Rant's page on Facebook for an insight into a GPs life.

@Eve

Let’s whip up the rhetoric against GPs so they are blamed & not years of cuts and running down services.

If it’s a daily mail headline blaming someone else then it’s definitely the Government’s fault.

This

The government are fucking gaslighting you here!

There have not given enough money to get enough doctors. It’s that simple.

@brittleheadgirl but did you spend £45,000 in university fees to obtain your qualification. Do you have to make complex decisions throughout the day and do people lives depend upon the decisions you make?

@brittleheadgirl I think GPs are mainly offering remote appointments because there is a huge shortage of GPs and they can rattle through more patients that way. It is the best they can do.

Also they are protecting themselves and their staff. We don't want an even bigger shortage of GPs because they have switched to face to face appointments and caught Covid. It is important that those we have left are still available.

My GP will see me face to face if she deems it necessary. I have seen her probably about half a dozen times since the pandemic. All other occasions, she has been able to deal effectively with my issue over the phone.

@DrManhattan

This doesn't match up with my experience. Can't get a face to face appointment and no adequate reason as to why .

Because as a number of people have pointed out -

1. The demand has increased about two fold, if they tried to see everyone face to face it would take months

1. Doctors have left because the working conditions are shit. There are not enough of them.

Are people really this thick?

250millon divided by 28,319 FTE GPs in the U.K. = £882 each. But it doesn’t go to the GP, it goes to the practice. £882 isn’t even going to pay for a part time receptionist for a month. It might pay for a training day for GP who knows. Said GP would probably rather be seeing patients than sat in yet another meeting being told how to do their job better with fewer resources.

Those demanding more face to face

How much extra taxes are you willing to pay to support the training and recruitment of significantly more GP s?

My GP surgery have been fantastic throughout the pandemic. I call up, they telephone the same day and then we've been in the surgery within a day or two for a face to face appointment . They are a "super surgery" so combined several surgeries a few years ago into a new purpose built centre. It seems to run really efficiently so maybe the area you're in,local nhs trust and management impact the service.

My GP has done their job. Same day phone appointments, face to face follow up when needed, referral to consultant. They’ve given me my vaccinations and a review of medication with the practice pharmacist. I’ve had a phone appointment with a specialist nurse which also resulted in a hospital referral. I’ve waited in the call queue for a while, but could have requested callback. Terrific service.

I’m in favour of them offering face to face appointments. Everyone else in the NHS hasn’t had the luxury of working remotely.

Rosemary Leonard said on breakfast this morning that doctors know best, what is good for their patients. I beg to disagree. The idea that doctor knows best is completely outdated. I know my body better than any doctor.

The thing I don't get is, before the pandemic you could see your GP relatively easy. Now all of a sudden you can't. Why has everything changed so suddenly? All the problems of underfunding etc were there before. Not being able to see a GP only means more people turning up at A&E units, putting pressure on them.

I am a GP. I AM doing my job as best as I can with the resources I have been given by the government with HUGE rise in demand.

I am also currently doing the job of multiple others - hospitals who haven’t sent patients home with their medication or sick notes after admission, managing patients who are on massive waiting lists and are struggling, supporting those with mental health problems who can’t get seen by mental health services in any timely fashion, social services - trying to pick up the pieces when elderly people don’t have the care they need provided at home/care homes because they don’t have the staff.

All while being short staffed due to covid and being leaving the jobs in droves.

The Mail and government are hell bent on damaging primary care beyond repair and people are just buying into the bullshit. Why don’t people think for themselves??! Headlines like we’ve had the last few weeks is just driving more and more of us to leave. For this first time in 15 years I have been exhausted to the point of wanting to jack it all in. And I still might. There are a whole load of other GPs who will and have done just that. What do you think will happen then?

Do they really work 3.5 days for £100k on average - or is the 100k figure what they would earn for 5 days?

Mummydoctor