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.

Thereisnolight

But there are reasons when a child’s behaviour is reason for seeing a doctor. My friends school (teacher and SENCo) suggested there was a potential issue with her child and told her to start with a GP. They’ve since been diagnosed with ASD and some other issues. Where go you suggest she goes if not a GP? My friend went private after hearing how long things take on the NHS.

Anxiety. A GP is sometimes a good call whether for medication or referral to therapy, if other things like exercise, meditation, relaxation, improving diet, reducing stress, talking to a person you trust etc aren’t working.

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

The GP I recently had a telephone consult with has me trying a new medication - he admitted it could actually make me worse but it MIGHT solve the pain that I’ve had for two years and has had me near suicidal. He said during the call that he wants to review me “after three weeks” BUT the “system” wouldn’t even allow him to book an appointment. Once I get within a week of the three weeks I will have to call at 8am when the lines open each morning and cross my fingers (not use e-booking as it needs to be with specific named doctor). However, I work in school and can’t block up the school line for up to an hour at 8am when parents are trying to call in and I am supposed to be working…… so a genuine patient that the doctor has said needs an appointment can’t actually have one.

For mental health issues, I believe in E&W you can self refer to MH services, you don't need to go via your GP.

TBH I think self referral to various services might lift a weight off GPs.

Gosh you clearly know far more than my 10 years of training and 25 years of experience. I am clearly so rubbish at my Jon just about anyone with Google can do it. Please feel free. We are short about 7000 GPs I'm sure you are more than able right?

But that right there is the mixed message. You're complaining that people are time wasters over things they could solve themselves. But then, when people tell you they've been fobbed off as time wasters and had to solve their issues themselves (which, by the way, women with thyroid issues talk about time and time and time and time again, are they all just moaning, whining complainers?) you turn really quite aggressive and unpleasant about their (forced) self-diagnosis and care.

As I said earlier, I am extremely pro-GP. My mum is one. But you're aiming your ire in the wrong direction (who wins when doctors and patients are at war with each other? Oh, right, Tory politicians wanting to privatise/make money off of health care 'reform'). Yes, some patients are whiners, or entitled pains in the arse or addicts or liars, but that's not the real issue. Blame years of successive government decisions that have failed the NHS and are failing the public in every way.

I know we desperately need more GPs, but I honestly think you are in a position where you need to put yourself first and take some time out to reevaluate whether you still have the desire and ability to be a good one.

I'm grateful for the work GPs do but also slightly perturbed by your post. The problem us patients (I've not been to the doctor in several years) have is knowing what is serious or not. As a pp mentioned, you also have many who may read this post and be put off contacting their GP about a symptom that they were going to get checked out eg. A mole, irregular periods etc which may or may not be sinister. With children, no wants wants to or should take a risk and I'm lucky in that my GP has always wanted to see a child the same day regardless.

My lovely dad didn't want to bother his GP with a persistent backache...it got worse rather than better and yet he was dismissed. Luckily a locum picked up on it when prescribing his blood pressure medication and a few weeks later he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Sadly he died a few months later.

Those of us not medically qualified often don't know when something crosses the line.

"However, I work in school and can’t block up the school line for up to an hour at 8am when parents are trying to call in and I am supposed to be working…… so a genuine patient that the doctor has said needs an appointment can’t actually have one."

Try ringing from your mobile.

Another important part of the doctor-patient relationship is actually having a relationship. It's recognised how important continuity of care is, and that it can tangibly affect patient outcomes, yet GPs don't have the resources to make that happen.

It's the difference between going to the GP about, say, your GI problems, and either

a) feeling able to trust that they know you and care about you, having had them treat you before for other things and seeing them care for your mum through her final months, having them say to you "I know how much pressure you've been under at work and how difficult things have been since your mum died, I can't find a physical reason behind your symptoms but sometimes these things can happen as a response to stress happening in our lives"

or

b) having some bloke with a medical degree who you don't know from Adam and you know you'll never see again, telling you that he's given you all the tests you wanted and there's nothing wrong so it must be stress-related.

If b), you're far less likely to feel reassured and more likely to keep going back IMO.

I don't think it would solve everything, GPs would still have their frequent flyers, but it might help.

Using a mobile in most schools goes against safeguarding policies.

"Those of us not medically qualified often don't know when something crosses the line."

I don't think it particularly identifying people who use the gp when they are concerned about their health.

It is more people who don't turn up for appointments, people who present suspecting a condition that is promptly ruled out but keep coming back about it, people who are given advice to help themselves but don't follow it, people who go to the gp for medication they could buy at a pharmacy, people who can't accept that there are more urgent patients and they will have to wait, people who can't accept that they don't meet the threshold for support and so on. Not people with a dodgy mole who quite rightly want a professional to take a look.

"Using a mobile in most schools goes against safeguarding policies."

Not at 8am in a classroom with no children it doesn't.

Hahahaha yeah OK.

But in the couple of examples I can think of (my dad being one and me when I kept going in for a sore throat that turned out to be quinsy and needed intravenous antibiotics) we both looked like those annoying patients who keep coming back but were dismissed.

Yes, this is a similar endless loop to one I'm in. GP refers me to HCSW. The HCSW refers me to a social prescriber. The social prescriber <all sing along now> reviews my notes and asks the GP to refer me to the chronic pain clinic that MSK were supposed to have referred me to a couple of years ago. I get a text from the social prescriber saying that I need to make an appointment to [exact quote] "have a chat" with the GP about the referral. Really? I've been trying to do this for years but the GPs all say, "that's an MSK thing."

So I ring up the GP practice last week. "There are no appointments left for the whole of August" I am told. "You'll have to ring back in a week or two and hope we've got something for September. I'm so sorry."

Meanwhile I receive a call from a senior practice nurse on the same day, who knows nothing about any of this. I've known this lovely practice nurse for years and we were able to find some dark humour in the situation. She said my latest blood tests "had been reviewed" and are way off again, and I need to make an appointment with a nurse for a repeat clinic in four weeks - but she can't make an appointment for me to do this because they haven't got any. I'll have to try to ring in September and fingers crossed, eh?

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

It's not an issue where I live. Four practices have merged into one big one, and since they did that, I've never had any problem getting an appointment.

I'm happy to have a telephone appointment as it saves the hassle of driving into town and finding somewhere to park, and it means I can get on with my work until they ring me. I realise that may not be feasible for people in jobs where they can't take phone calls, but they've also taken on some locums and my last appointment with one of those was at 7.30 pm, so they clearly work into the early evening.

I trust them to judge whether they actually need to see me in person or not, but the last time they wanted to do that was 2019 and the GP agreed with my suspicion that it was likely to be arthritis in my knee, and apologised for getting me to come into the surgery unnecessarily.

I'm surprised they're managing so well, tbh, as the town and the nearby village have grown massively over the last 20 years or so, so the number of people on their books must have gone up a lot too.

Recently I had to go to an urgent care place on a Sunday as I had been bitten by a dog in the park. When I arrived my heart sank: there were over 50 people there. I was however triaged immediately and seen and stitched up and tetanused in 15 minutes.

The nurse practitioner said that I was the first genuine patient they’d had that day . She said it was a constant procession of colds, sore throats and someone who’d had one episode of diarrhoea. I said if you can leave the bathroom, you’ve clearly not got it very badly (obvs excepting long-term issue in which case you’d be at GP).

Even as I arrived, the woman in front told the receptionist she had a “runny nose” and hadn’t slept all night. When the receptionist said there would be a lengthy wait, the woman said she’d go home and could they ring her when it was her turn

I honestly think some people enjoy the drama of a medica,l setting. Mil used to go to the doctor all the time . She’d say, “Dr West will be wondering how I am.” Yeah right. Dr West had mil removed from his list and she was shunted around the practice as she was clearly a pain. They failed to notice though that she had Alzheimer’s….

The nurse practitioner said that I was the first genuine patient they’d had that day Shock . She said it was a constant procession of colds, sore throats and someone who’d had one episode of diarrhoea.

How professional.

I'm one of those people whose had to keep going back. If I didn't, I'd be on medication that doesn't work and (for an unrelated issue) I'd probably be seriously ill by now and still on medication that didn't work.

A GP, who doesn't know the difference between there and their. Then there's the idolising from some! Seems people are forgetting GPs going into hiding during covid.

A GP, who doesn't know the difference between there and their.

How do you know? Can you read their handwriting?

I think Covid could have made people more health anxious and not being able to access health care in the usual timely way has heightened this anxiety. Hence the increase in demand.

So the OP has ridiculed the menopause. Deary me, how very professional. GP my eye.

There was also some publicity after lockdown to get people to GPs again as many had neglected their health. May have worked rather too well!

Yup DD needed antibiotics.

But the receptionists ASK patients, over the 'phone, what the problem is. They should be prioritising calls. The more needy ones should be seen the same day, and the people who ring up wanting silly, trivial things - a letter, a BP test, a very minor problem etc., should be referred to the chemist/given an appointment for a month's time/advised to look after themselves

Mobiles not allowed in school PLUS I’m the one that is supposed to answering the calls from parents on the school line.