To think that people have become completely incapable....

[memorial]

Ok so I'm a GP (yes yes I know I could be anybody) and have been for over 20 years.
But bloody hell our society have become completely and utter incapable of any kind of self care or self responsibility. I have never known anything like the kind of demand we are facing. And I'm sorry most of it is just complete and utter nonsense. Over and over again.
Genuinely ill and needy people are being lost in the deluge. It's absolutely impossible to offer any kind of decent care. And we are losing doctors, nurses and staff rapidly. And we cannot recruit. It's not about pay It's about absolutely ridiculous workload and risk.
Yes the system is broken yes we need more of everything.
But every single thing does not need GP hand holding. It doesn't need 2 page complaints because you didn't get what you wanted when you wanted it.
Some days I just think people won't be happy until I go and wipe their arses for them.
I'm done. And it's not just me.

Look, OP, we all know now that GP practices are private businesses that contract their services to the NHS.

What most patients want after all these years of covid shit is a timely referral into secondary ('specialist') care.

What they're facing is a lot of budget gatekeeping from GP practices, which means you maintain the workload.

Try sorting your primary care / CCG contracts out with your secondary NHS trusts ffs. You know, shared care? Stop leaving all this stuff to non-executive director committees sat in distant boardrooms who don't give a fuck. Then you could propel many patients forward instead of hanging on to them.

Sorry haven't seen the post no quite sure what it refers to.
Of course there are rubbish GPs. The problem is after 30 odd consults plus the rest every day, empathy burnout is a very real thing. Google it.

Yep completely agree.
nurse for 30 years, never known so many people be unable to take paracetamol without a handhold. Or want every investigation for the most minor symptoms.or ask for advice and then proceed to ignore it all and wonder why they don’t improve. Why go to the bother of asking if you’re not going to follow through? Heyho.

when we’re all paying for our appointments self care will be right back in fashion,

DH could get through to our surgery. He was told that sudden onset, painless jaundice wasn't an emergency and could wait 2 weeks for an appointment. When his blood tests came back with his CA19-9 over 400 his GP referred him for a routine ultrasound. We had to fight our surgery every step of the way to get him seen and diagnosed. We didn't want the impossible. We just wanted a GP who would listen and act.

Absolutely, unequivocally agree with you OP.

People have lost all common sense and/or ability to think for themselves

Honestly, “better safe than sorry” has killed the NHS. Absolutely better safe than sorry if you have chest pain or ONGOING illness. Better safe than sorry because your 3 year old has a
sore ear? Jesus wept!

And the complaints OMG the whiney, whinging me me me complaints.

I nearly quit my job a few weeks ago when I had to apologise profusely, in writing to a patient who’d turned up and their appointment had been cancelled. They complained to PALS, their MP! and anyone else who would listen, So even though their surgeon was performing EMERGENCY life saving surgery so couldn’t see them in clinic I had to write a snivelly little apology letter to poor Mr Jones.l because we didn’t have time to call him and cancel his appointment between the ruptured aorta and his OPA

Utterly pathetic

But GPs have no say in the crazy bureaucracy - my former GP called it the "Parallel Universe". Just like A&E staff can't get more staff in.

Between entitlement and overpopulation, we will run out of essential workers very soon. All the carrots in the world won't entice them into the jobs as they are now.

So much ignorance and nonsense here.
Not private businesses by a long shot. Contractors to a monopoly employer who sets contracts and hasn't seen a real time increase in years. It's not about money.
GPs haven't been "gatekeepers" for oh 20+ years. We are more than happy to refer you. As long as you are happy to wait months to years. BTW this is part of the current demand. The massive hospital waits, back logs and frankly absurd management is pushing this work onto us.

Gotta hate those patients

Hi Op, thanks for all the hard work you do. It sounds like such a tough job and it won’t be helped by the media going on and on about ‘’gps going back to work’’🙄

I just had a quick question if that’s ok. I notice in your example you mentioned IBS- I’ve been to my doctors a lot because of my IBS- I’m young, BMI 19, healthy diet, play sports 5-7x a week- I’ve tried all the usual things that can be prescribed and nothing has helped. I get awful cramps, diarrhoea, blood, mucus, sudden urgency… basically textbook IBS. All my tests are normal. I’ve been to the Gp a lot because I can’t control my symptoms and sometimes they are too bad to put up with. I don’t know what I’m expecting them to do, I guess I’m hoping there’s something else I could try. Is this what you mean in your example? I would hate to be a timewaster but not sure what else to do or where else to go if I can’t control it myself? I suppose I am that patient who you said has been investigated lots of times and keeps coming back, but I genuinely don’t know what else to do?

thanks again for all your hard work 👍

I'm really unsure why OP is getting such a hard time. She's not responsible for the failings of the NHS.

OP, it sounds like you're doing your best swimming against the tide and you bloody deserve to vent and rant a little, the situation is hopeless.

I can't believe the things some people go to the GP over. Utter waste of time; things that can easily be managed at home.

Ireland have a set fee for every appointment; €50 or so. Obviously certain people are exempt (young and elderly). I think its worth considering here, even if the fee was much less. We'd see less missed appointments, that's for sure.

People need to stop wasting NHS time.

I am beyond caring what you think. However my patients will be devastated. If I leave I'm not sure my practice will survive. I am hanging on out of loyalty for my patient and staff. But yes attitudes like this will be the reason I don't hang on all that much longer.

Seriously she would not get an appointment at my GP practice (if she could even get through to speak to a receptionist).

Some times. Some days. Some of them. Yes. I cannot tell you how much that hurts me. Its not just a job. It's who I am it's my identity. Its what I have done and been for more than half my life.
I sued to be proud of what I did. I used to love it. Sometimes I do. Some days when the man who opened up to me looked back and mouthed thank you on his way out. Sometimes I still do. Not so much any more.

Go get another job then

No need to tell the internet about it 🤷

I used to work at Aldis. Eventually I had enough of it, the customers started to piss me off, the management started to piss me off and my colleagues started to piss me off.

So now I work in an office and I managed to switch jobs all on my own without telling Mumsnet about it first.

Imagine that OP...

It works both ways. I’ve come across a fair few doctors over the years who seem incapable. The one who failed to refer my DM to a specialist after she had had a sore throat and ear pain for 6 months. She died of throat cancer. The doctor who told my DD she had IBS when she turned up on multiple occasions reporting blood and mucus in her poo, dreadful diahorrea and weight loss. No tests. She had ulcerative colitis. The one who told me I was just ‘Full of baby’ when at 8 months pregnant and having had high blood pressure since my first antenatal appointment, I said I had a pounding headache, blurred vision and pain behind my eyes and felt dreadful. Went to hospital that afternoon was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia , had an EMCS within an hour or two and ended up in ICU and DD in PICU. The one who told my friend who was feeling suicidal to have a cup of coffee, go for a walk or watch something nice on TV.

Being a GP is a tough job that’s not in doubt. Being a patient is also tough sometimes.

I think I’m some respects yanbu, a friend of mine has her child down at the gp all the time. This week he has chicken pox, he’s fine, no temp, no infections and is not uncomfortable, but mum wanted reassurance that it was chicken pox.

i do think we are encouraged to see the gp though via health promotions almost a ‘if in doubt go’ and it can be a bit difficult to know when to go.

Another thread had a concern for her mental health and is hesitating to go to her GP because she thinks they will be irritated with her.
I commented that her GP is there to help her and shouldn't be irritated at all but clearly there are rude and unsympathetic GPs like yourself

🙄

Yes but people like my friend are the reason that people who genuinely need appt's can't get them.

People doing things like this are making waiting times longer and making it harder for the people in genuine need of care to get it.

Lots and lots of people do exactly what my friend does. Its an attitude thing.

@TeTeapotTitties Not really a fair comment unless your vocation was always to work at Aldi?

I am a mental health nurse and completely agree with you.

People's expectations of life are completely out of kilter.

People genuinely seem to think that life is about feeling happy all of the time and having100% health.

All the time having these expectations while wanting quick fixes to feel better, and not wanting to accept that it is hard work to recovery from trauma and mental health difficulties.

I have been practicing 22 years and find it so demoralising that people now just expect so much , while taking such little responsibility for their own emotional well-being.

It has had a big impact upon my own health

I'm sorry you feel that way. Part of the problem is the disdain with which you clearly view highly trained experienced professionals.
I would like to think and am pretty sure I have changed many lives over the last 25 years. Am certain of it. But your disdain just shows your ignorance as to what we do and that you have been lucky enough to have never really needed our expertise.

@memorial
Which is why I have a dead child in a cemetery?

@sorsorrysaythatagain
The OP is letting off steam anonymously and giving people an insight into her work as a GP.

You can't seriously believe all professionals love every aspect of dealing with people and never have a bad word to say, even when the patient is rude, obnoxious, demanding...? Doctors, lawyers, vets, dentists... most are going to feel the exact same way as OP at times when facing the general public.

I live in the US and have the experience of bringing five DCs to their pediatrician (pediatricians deliver primary care to children in the US).

Our pediatrician's office employed nurses to respond to questions from patients over the phone. I would call and give the receptionist a description of symptoms including temperature, along with my phone number, and a nurse would call me back within a few hours with a doctor's opinion and recommendations. I had to argue with nurses over the phone a few times to get a DC in to see a doctor, once with double ear infection and once in need of nebuliser treatment for asthma.

The result was fewer patients with the common cold sneezing all over the waiting room.