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.

Just wanted to say thank you @memorial for everything you do, and the crap you have put up with.
I have several GPs in my family and they have worked/do work incredibly hard, often at the expense of their own mental health.
I hope you have a good support network around you, some positive coping mechanisms and an exit plan.

TwoNightStand But that's the whole point. GP surgeries can't address it because they are overwhelmed, underfunded and under-resourced. There is simply not the capacity in the system to deal with this anymore and yet we perpetuate this by doing the same to education and prioritising profit over investment and the greater good.

Oh I really feel for you OP. I am a nurse but have just given up for a career change. I was working late nearly every shift just to catch up on my day jobs, and it just seems expected. I’ve been spat at - for just parking in a communal area.
I turned up to give someone a flu vaccine and was sworn at repeatedly because I had not made an appointment ( community nurses don’t make appointments as we are only meant to see house bound). Having 6 syringe drivers in a row in a 30 mile radius
so absolutely no time to stop and give quality palliative care because the next person needs me just as much and medication is on a timer. Simple things I have to get checked by a gp to protect my own registration incase something even minor goes wrong. Which created more work for you. It’s soul destroying. This is a very small sample of things but I wanted you to know I understand your burn out x

Controversial post OP! I'm a GP. Been one for 10 yrs. I quit my job in April. Thoroughly fed up. So yes we r leaving. I am not the only one to go. 2 more have resigned since April. The stress/workload/angst/ingratitude is just not worth it anymore. Also! As an aside my fabulous late father paid my med school bills. No wasted govt funding here! I work, but not ever again in this same role.

Ex-GP medical secretary and receptionist, also worked in urgent care centre. Fully agree. Genuine patients can't get appointments, and are often the quietest voices. On the other hand, a large minority of people who refuse to believe that the pharmacist can usually help, or that paracetamol/ibuprofen/lemsip can be bought over the counter and will solve many problems, are loud and demanding. Or there are those who bring children with runny noses because they refuse to spend £2 on a bottle of liquid paracetamol from the pharmacist and demand a prescription for it instead. Or those who can find every website going, except the NHS one that tells them how to diagnose and self care and when they need to see a doctor. And then, there are those who don't get what they wanted because they want antibiotics for a virus, so they head over to A&E instead, hoping to get it, only to loudly complain because they had to wait for 8 hours to get told by a nurse practitioner ("I didn't even see a doctor!") they don't need antibiotics because they have a virus, which is what the GP they didn't need to see told them in the first place. I loved working in GP surgeries, and did for 20 years. Wouldn't go back. Contrary to the dragon image, taking phone calls from ill people who need appointments and being unable to offer one is very difficult. What's even worse is that at least one person per session (that's per half day, per doctor) will fail to attend and leave that appointment unused.

What is it that genuine patients who can't get appointments have to do to get appointments?

The receptionists did a good job of fending me off when I needed help for my child. Why aren’t they fending off all these apparent time wasters off? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway, after seeing a private GP and using private medical care for treatment, 2 years later, my child is almost back to full health. No thanks to the NHS, the receptionist wouldn’t even give us a phone appointment to ask for the blood tests needed (our private healthcare didn’t cover the full cost) so we paid ourselves. I’m sure there are lovely staff and that many are working hard and are as frustrated as the patients, but many are arseholes and the system itself is broken. I just don’t believe that ‘most’ people are time wasters and going for nonsense reasons as OP is saying.

*3

I can empathise with many parts of your post. I generally find our GPs to be brilliant I’m always able to get an appointment when it’s needed and they’ve been brilliant at slotting my children in for appointments at very short notice when unwell. I always ensure I thank the GP and the receptionists for brilliant service. I’m sorry you’re so burnt out and having to work so many extra hours while dealing with all these difficulties. My only criticism of our GPs is that there is often a lack of cohesive service for ongoing more woolly issues relating to women’s health especially when there are clear symptoms but results come out just and only just in range. I’ve felt like I’m banging my head against a brick wall trying to get to the bottom of hormonal issues and super low ferritin. I have so many symptoms yet there’s no thinking out of the box even if my bloods are low enough that treatment would be given in different trusts / countries yet it’s almost a computer says no attitude. So I’m left suffering symptoms that impact on my day to day life and time is wasted by needing to touch base with evolving symptoms that I’m sure would be resolved if my ferritin deficiency, low b12 and high just out of range FSH levels were actually treated and I was looked at as a whole rather than just using a set of numbers. I find this approach absolutely soul destroying as I know my body but don’t know how to fix it.

I think that much of the problem is under-resourcing. But in addition, there is a different attitude to the doctor-patient relationship. In the past, doctors were expected to be more paternalistic, and patients were expected not to take personal responsibility but to do as the doctor told them. Now patients are treated more as equal decision-makers. A good thing in many many ways, but may create problems for patients who are poor decision-makers in general and in particular situations (both extremes: the time-wasters, and those who avoid the doctor till too late) and thereby for their doctors. So I don't think that people take less responsibility than in the past; but I think it's more obvious when they don't than in the days of doctor-knows-best.

You aren’t there to see medical emergencies OP you aren’t an A&E consultant you are a ‘ general practitioner’ how else are people able to access these medications otherwise .

My friends 42-year-old sister was buried last week. Couldn’t get a GPs appointment for a smear for the whole of 2021 when she finally could take the pain no longer she presented to A&E who immediately admitted her, everything from diagnosis to surgery to end of life care and ultimately the end was a total of nine weeks.

I have long thought that (many of) us Brits have a very peculiar attitude to being told what is good for us in terms of self-care. If I remember rightly, when the government introduced the "five a day" advice, consumption of fruit and veg actually went down according to follow-up research. Likewise, since the dangers of obesity (diabetes, heart attacks etc) were spelled out, obesity rates have increased. And when doctors began weighing patients at all surgery appointments.....the outcry! I suspect smoking rates have only decreased because cigarettes became too expensive for most. Perhaps our healthcare system has led us to believe we can do as we please and then get fixed for free?

I’m so sorry about your friend.

How can it differ so much between towns and cities? I get texts from my GP’s surgery every 4 days begging me to go in for smears.

What is causing this inequality? Or is is that some surgeries are inefficient?

Just what is it with mumsnet at the moment-? There seems to be an influx of thoroughly horrible people determined to have a go at anyone in a professional job - doctor, nurse, teacher, -- all totally fair game!!

Most of these people are doing their best in very trying circumstances!! What with targets in this and that, budget cuts, constant assessment.

OP- I'm totally with you on this-

You’re totally with a GP that says most patients come in with complete and utter nonsense reasons? 🙄

That’s so sad. I’m sorry.

I do feel bad for medics, at surgeries and hospitals, the situation’s messed up. I know my surgery has one exceptional GP, and another I don’t like that laughed at me. I think it was a nervous laugh, I didn’t say anything funny. I haven’t met any of the others, I don’t bother them very often, there’s not really anything they can do for me. I tried to kill myself last year, survived without medical intervention, not bothered if I did myself permanent damage. I don’t care about my life, so why should they?

No one is saying that someone with a health concern should not see their GP.

But as well as all the marathon runners and fit to fly letters, the following are reasons why people are told to see their GP:

Out of control child? See your GP.
Lonely? Anxious? See your GP.
Marriage problems? See your GP.

Because there’s no one else to see.
And a quick look at MN will tell you why:

My MIL is too involved, how can I get rid?

Religion should be banned.

My neighbour keeps trying to talk to me, how can I get them to butt out?

I only need me, DP and the DC.

How can I get DP to spend more time with me and our baby and less with his old DC.

It’s my right to shag whoever I like, whenever I like and have as many kids as I like.

Drugs should be legalised, otherwise it’s the nanny state

My son should be allowed to wear a skirt to school.

Can I invite the whole class to my DC party expect for one child?

Everyone only thinking of themselves. No one willing to reach out to others. It’s awful to see some of the attitudes here.

@memorial I know it's no consolation but I too felt burnout.
A different profession but I worked my damndest and it wasn't enough.
I cared deeply and it wasn't enough. I'm glad I'm done.
I got out.

I went to the doctor quite often (once per month at least) in my late teens to early 20s for everything from suspected IBS, gluten intolerance, sore throat, asthma... This would have been a drain on the system and I'm sure GPs were annoyed.

This went on for about 4 years before a wonderful Nurse Practitioner listened to me and looked over my notes, then immediately called in a GP for a mental health assessment. I was very quickly diagnosed with Health Anxiety and Panic Attacks. I was given medication and have barely felt the need for a doctor since.

I didn't know that Health Anxiety was a thing. I just knew that I felt like I was very ill, struggling with my stomach and couldn't breathe correctly. A GP should have noticed this far sooner.

@TwoNightStand She's in the frontline- I'm not- and she is frustrated that people who really do need to see a doctor are having trouble accessing one due to far many presenting with stuff that needs a lemsip- or some physio or psychotherapy not a doctor . She is seeing patients- I'm not and have no reason to doubt that her view is probably valid-

The problem is the periphery services such as mental health and physio and diabetes care are so struggling that many who go to GP really do need other help and attention and it's not forthcoming - so they go to GP as a one stop shop. Same is happening now in A&E with people who simply can't get a GP appointment- it's a knock on effect

What is it that genuine patients who can't get appointments have to do to get appointments?

I’m autistic and have severe health anxiety and ocd relating to that. I’ve realised over the years that going to my GP doesn’t really solve anything and I’ve become phobic anyway. I spend most of my day on self care, trying to manage my mental health but it’s still terrible.

I eat healthily, I’m gluten free, I do one hour of Ashtanga, one hour of yin yoga and two hours of walking each day and I don’t drink alcohol. I do this partly so that I can avoid going to my GP because I’m petrified.

Do you actually advise people on how to take care of their health? Just that I have a nineteen year old son who rarely leaves his room, never exercises and eats one meal a day because of his sleep schedule being so messed up (he doesn’t live with me btw). Obviously he’s depressed (and had undiagnosed autism and adhd) and doesn’t feel great but he has little respect for me so I try to tell him that he’d feel so much better with exercise, daylight, three sensible meals a day etc, but he doesn’t take any notice. He’s been offered sertraline but as far as I know, no doctor has asked about his lifestyle.

True. We are more isolated than ever - and often only have ourselves to blame. It’s as if people can’t bear others to be less than perfect. So they decide to hide away from them, and be alone, rather realising that friends/family/ neighbors / Colleagues don’t need to be perfect to be a good source of support.
The sense of community that used to exist has been lost partly because people convinced themselves they didn’t need it - ditto the extended family.