To think doctors, specifically GP's need to change their approach to patients

[GlasswareisOverated]

We live in the technological age. We have access to information at our fingertips, that someone fifty years ago, hell even twenty years ago would not have been able to comprehend.
Am I being unreasonable to think that drs need to lose the 'we know best about everything medical' attitude.

Obviously I won't be performing brain surgery any time soon or stripping legs of vascular veins to be used in cardiac surgery but I can read a laboratory report and understand what it means and I can get the gist of most medical studies.

"Half of what you are taught in medical school will be wrong in 10 years’ time. The trouble is, none of your teachers know which half"
Former dean of Harvard medical school, Sydney Burwell.

Oh I’ve got one that Google is really helpful with actually but as long as you end up on the right sites (which perhaps is always the challenge?!). Which drugs you can take while breastfeeding.
Most drugs aren’t tested on breastfeeding mothers so won’t say they can be taken even though they can. There are resources online which collate all the information out there and give fact sheets on each drug and how compatible or not it is with breastfeeding - these are extremely helpful and have helped many mothers successfully challenge decisions not to put them on antidepressants or painkillers.
There is a pharmacist who collated all the U.K. information out there on drugs and breastfeeding and actually just got an MBE for her services because she has helped so many women keep breastfeeding when their GP has said no. It’s not an NHS service but you’ve always been able to contact her online free of charge.

Interpreting a lab report really isn't as easy as googling "high potassium". This is why as a GP, you will get questions like "OMG my potassium is high I've got kidney failure!!" when actually the cause is something else entirely. There's a reason medical training takes so long.

The thing is, though, that doctors can't assume all their patients are within that category - just as all doctors aren't the same either. They don't necessarily have to assume everyone is capable of medical diagnostics, but they shouldn't assume they're stupid, either.

Generally speaking my experience of GPs in our local surgery has been good, but on a recent phone appointment with a hospital doctor I found she was really patronising: she asked if I knew anything about the condition I had, I said I had googled it, she instantly jumped into docsplaining to me that I couldn't trust everything I read on the internet. I struggled to get a word in edgeways to say that what I had read was on the NHS website so I hoped it was pretty reliable. She then went on to say that my results had all been absolutely normal and everything was fine, till I queried something that had been in the copy letter I received - whereupon she actually looked at the notes and went gently into panic mode and did a total reverse. I ended up thinking it was lucky for both her and me that at least one of us had their brain in gear.

No of course not, but in my case I always - over many years - have a high-ish white blood cell count. I don’t pretend to know what that could be a sign of and have never ever suggested it to a doctor. BUT it is helpful when I can provide printed sheets of old blood work going back many years (that I’ve had privately) and they can see that my readings are always a little high. They can do with that information as they wish and I’ve never argued that they should or should not be concerned (because again, I don’t really know what the concern is and what further tests would be) but it’s nice to be involved in the discussion. No NHS midwife or doctor has ever actually let me know what my number is (whereas I could tell you what the number has been over about 5 private blood tests) or given me the sheet to keep.
Every time I’ve shown them old readings the doctor has decided it’s not an issue but these are now really old documents and should this come up again in another pregnancy (hypothetically were I to have another it WOULD come up because it’s always come up and resulted in a referral to a consultant) it would feel better to know that I can be provided with my own medical data, even if as a lay person I can’t understand it fully.

If the govt have their way, I'm sure they will use artificial intelligence programmes to replace GPs as a cheaper model of healthcare.
No arrogance with computers, but unfortunately, no compassion, no empathy or understanding either.

@PollyDarton2

"I’ve watched all 18 seasons of Greys Anatomy so I’m 99% sure I could actually be a doctor if I wanted to be. "

LOL 😆

Are you not in England? All of my blood test results are on the NHS app. Going back years

Thank goodness for Google, Holby and Grey's anatomy.

Whilst I share your frustration with doctors who seem dismissive, sadly a large proportion of the general public are a bit thick.

Dr Google is a great source of information, if you have studied medical sciences at degree level. 99% of the population haven’t. Even then diagnostics is a whole speciality in itself. Why do you think it takes GPS so long to train, they don’t leave medical school and set up shop the next day.
Because of Dr Google, health professionals now have to super cautious with patients who present with a diagnosis from Dr Google, or indeed mumsnet. Patients will know what symptoms they should have and often muddy the waters resulting in over medication and incorrect diagnosis.
I had Covid in Feb 2020 and had months of fatigue afterwards that I put down to post viral fatigue, I didn’t think it merited a visit to the GP. Turned out to be cancer fatigue, I was diagnosed with breast cancer 18mnths later. Now had I seen my GP the subtle difference in this symptom was that it was getting worse rather than gradually improving, a good GP would have picked this up and asked further questions.
Giving your GP a list of symptoms copied from the internet isn’t how diagnostics works. Subtle questioning gives a much better picture.
You can often diagnose a problem within 30 seconds of a consultation or as the patient starts to leave. Patients who suspect bowel cancer will often leave it to the last minute to mention blood in their poo, having gone through all the other symptoms. Possibly it is embarrassment and they are hoping the HP will bring it up first. Sometimes it’s cancer fear, they know things aren’t right and the fear of cancer is still very high.

Presumably a GP would know that all veins are "vascular" though, OP?

Mine are fine, tho one got meds wrong, which was very annoying, had to put in complaint, all sorted tho

@PollyDarton2

I’ve watched all 18 seasons of Greys Anatomy so I’m 99% sure I could actually be a doctor if I wanted to be.

I’ve also watched all of House so wanna open a surgery together? 😀Anything not diagnosed you send to me and we’ll run a series of invasive life threatening tests until we kill either the patient or their pesky symptoms.

I haven't seen a doctor myself in 12-15 years, so no idea what my practise does.

I do think GP surgeries seem to assume that everyone lives with and is competent with technological advances of the past 10-20 years.

My FIL has various issues one of which was causing him pain and he has been told top phone if he gets pain - but cannot get in touch with his GP via the phone - the recorded message says to go online to book, which he tries to, then he has to be sent an access code to a mobile phone - but he has no mobile phone.

So I sorted on his behalf, got through and passed on the message that he was in pain and had been told if in pain he had to phone the GP back. I explained he couldn't book an appointment online as no mobile phone, and was told someone would call him. This was Monday, as of last night NOBODY has called him - he's carried the house phone round with him all week. I rang yesterday afternoon to try and get him this |GP callback - but sadly the offices were shut due to staff training!
I worry how on earth someone without technology, and nobody to call can manage to contact their GP?

Yes - academic here and I'd totally agree with you @FruityPolos - understanding about what is and isn't a reliable source, especially on the internet, is really poor amongst many students. Sadly not always confined to their first year!

Really? You do not think there has been huge underfunding in women's heatlh? Research done on men (easier - less hormonal fluctuations). Try this as a starter lordslibrary.parliament.uk/womens-health-outcomes-is-there-a-gender-gap/ I am astounded you can even begin to think that female GPs will outweigh the decades and decades of male-focussed healthcare/research/pharm bias. Fucking hell.

I didn’t need Google. I turned up at my GP surgery twice with an infection that I had had before. Ignored both times. On my second visit I was told it couldn’t be a strep B infection and it wasn’t worth looking at a sore throat as it would go away on its own. Three weeks later I am in critical care trying not to die from sepsis caused by an untreated strep b throat infection. Not trying to be an expert but would wish the GP I saw actually listened, sometimes we do know what is wrong.

@Lockheart - your examples made me laugh.

Ironically my mother is a (retired) doctor, and it really did feel like your leg had to be falling off before she'd accept I had something wrong...

a rather spectacularly broken leg that she initially just gave a couple of paracetamol for comes to mind (and she admitted years later she felt a bit guilty that when we did finally go to the hospital, I was immediately put in a wheelchair and whisked off).

I think doctor's children can get it the toughest...

Just came to say, all veins are vascular.

That is really terrible, @Ariela - could your father actually go to the gp surgery and explain and ask to book an appointment (for a future time) directly? Or phone 111 and get access via that service?

That's terrible if no one has got back to him all week and it's now a BH weekend coming up.

Obviously I won't be performing brain surgery any time soon or stripping legs of vascular veins to be used in cardiac surgery

I wonder if the OP was thinking of "varicose veins"?

Be a brilliant BOGOF scheme if you could remove varicose veins and use them up in heart surgery. Less waste too.

@CorsicaDreaming I'm actually just going to go stuff a note through their door on the way to work, sadly no time to spend an hour+ on the phone today.
He won't phone 111 because he's 'not that bad' (but would ring 999 if it was - I don't think he thinks 111 is different from 999)

We need to get away from GPs as gatekeepers of the NHS.

Children should have paediatricians.

Women should have gynecologists.

Nurses and pharmacists should be able to issue more drugs and sick lines without a GPs signature.

One size fits all just doesn't work anymore.

That is really terrible, @Ariela - could your father actually go to the gp surgery and explain and ask to book an appointment (for a future time) directly? Or phone 111 and get access via that service?

That's terrible if no one has got back to him all week and it's now a BH weekend coming up.

Will no one think of the non-vascular veins?