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.

Some members of the public can be utter pisstakes. I have no doubt what OP is describing is true. If there only was a way to make those timewasters pay for their care they might appreciate it more.

YANBU OP. For a few decades now we’ve known that we’re approaching a demographic crisis with an unbalanced economy, not enough investment in health and social care to match demographic demand from an ageing population, resistance from that ageing population to paying more tax (especially on their assets) to fund the services they will need, less funding per capita for the health service than many other developed nations, and a lot of can-kicking down the road for future generations to pick up. Then a decade of Tory underfunding and Brexit and Covid on top have made it even worse (not training enough healthcare staff for decades, particularly doctors; thinking you can import them from the EU instead, and then allowing your population to make the massive own goal of sending them all home again was a particularly nice Tory blunder).

Anyway, I work with university students and if you so much as complain on MN that there’s a crisis in students’ ability to cope with everyday life, not even just the routine academic demands of their courses, you get a ton of hysterical posters jumping on you about how you shouldn’t be in your job then because you’re SO MEAN AND HATEFUL and you should just push off if you don’t think your job is to be at everyone’s beck and call.

Who they think will be left to do everyone’s bidding in education, healthcare, public services etc. is genuinely a mystery.

I know so many doctors in GP practice but also in the hospital system who are leaving because of the conditions and workload. Those include at least two consultants who have got so sick of it that they’ve jumped ship into pharmaceuticals where they get paid more and have a normal workload.

It takes a long time to train a GP or a hospital consultant — 8-12 years or more. When they go, where do posters think their replacements are going to be coming from? We used to fill GP and hospital doctor jobs from the EU. Now where do we get doctors from? Many developing countries don’t even have the resources to train enough doctors for their own populations, never mind ours too just because we don’t feel like funding our healthcare system properly.

Oh dear. I'm sorry you are so angry and bitter and carry so much hurt with you. I'm sorry you blame an entire profession (much of which had absolutely nothing to do with us). Pregnancy and hospital care are enot within GP renit in any way.
It's not about money (for the 10th time) though GPs have seen the biggest real term cuts of any medical professional. It's about demand and risk.
I'm not going to engage with you anymore. I feel sorry for you.

I didn't know that pregnancy was not within GP remit in any way.

You may not believe it but you will be wrong.
Just like those who believe you can't see a GP face to face because their demand to see someone urgently for their sore throat was declined. We obviously don't tell them about the 20 patients who have been seen because they needed to.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking everyone is like you.
What help is it you think I need? I need to leave. I will do. When my loyalty and work ethic has even stretched to breaking.

You may see community midwives at your GP practice because they’re in primary care, but they’re not part of the GP practice. Hospitals (acute or secondary care) nothing to do with primary care either.

@memorial
So you should. Don’t engage. I don’t “blame” an entire profession- if by that you mean GPs. You made the first snide remarks to me, not the other way around.
Enjoy the heartwarming support of people telling you they understand how hard it is to be a GP - without being one.
I have a lot of anger for the above individual s I mentioned- and yes, it was a GP who failed to recognise my daughter’s impending death because as I said the midwife was on holiday.
Enjoy your whinge-fest. Or leave your job..

Entirely removed from the GP contract in 2004. By midwife insistence. We do of course see pregnant women with medical problems (nausea, heartburn, constipation, UTi etc). But anything directly pregnancy related (bleeding, fetal movements, pain etc) is obstetrics or midwives.

Lol

I can always see my GP easily as can my partner and children. But we only ring if there is really something wrong.

It's the midwifery service you should be angry with. Not your GP. They failed you. They should have provided an alternative service. It's not a GP service and hasn't been since 2004.

Academically, maybe.

Vocationally, absolutely not. You’ve sat in a uni for X years, not done a real job. Get over yourself.

I think GPs need to work smarter and make use of technology

The job is to stratify risk right? Is there a place for data analytics to support this, so triage is done more intelligently and if you don’t score high enough you get automated self care advice. Start saying no to people, if you have a sore throat for less than 2 weeks, you don’t get an appointment unless you have other risk factors.

Clinical risks are not a good reason not to be doing this, as patient safety is currently being compromised anyway.

My GP refuses to use online consulting and it’s infuriating as it could save so much time

I went to my GP 7 times with worsening symptoms pretty sure it was bowel cancer. I got fobbed off - stress, IBS - they wouldn't refer me. When I was finally referred because I wouldn't stop going back, the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes.

The cost of those extra 6 GP visits, the extra surgery and the chemo that may not have been needed had I been referred 6 months earlier could have treated others.

Similarly I suffered menopause symptoms for many years because I had read that HRT was dangerous. When I did see the GP about an issue seriously impacting on my life she told me it was part of getting older and I would just have to put up with it. No wonder celebrities have to get involved.

Sorry OP just shamelessly bumping my comment in case you didn’t see it. I’m genuinely not trying to be goady, it’s just I’ve always been worried about being that difficult or annoying patient but I just genuinely don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I expect the GP to do either but is there a better thing for people like me to do or is it ok to keep going to the GP?

thanks again 👍

@SpinCityBlues @memorial
Presuming you are referring to me - it was 2013 when I was pregnant with that child. I regularly attended my GP surgery for the usual tests and saw a midwife - presumably a community midwife. When I was 36 weeks pregnant I went to a midwife appointment but saw a GP because the midwife was on holiday.
I saw the same Gp after my daughter died and I recovered from almost death. So please do not try to suggest that a commoner like me doesn’t know the difference between a GP and a midwife.
Or hospital doctors and GPS.
Believe me, like many people who have lost a loved one, we do know who is a doctor and who is a receptionist and so on, though you probably think we don’t.

Well I'm not surprised patients are confused. Notably the pregnant and menopausal ones.

I understand what the OP is saying and where they are coming from, far, far too many people do not take any responsibility for their own health and expect what they want when they want it because it's free or they'll say I pay my taxes and want and expect a 5 Star Gold Plated service dedicated entirely to them, hence you have people turning up at the GP surgery for the most minor of minor issues which usually need no treatment or could be easily treated with over the counter medication from a Chemist or they go to A&E and clog that up.

Those people are preventing the truly unwell being seen or having to wait longer to be seen, diagnosed and treated.

I’m so sorry you’re copping it @memorial . I think you sound like a caring and conscientious doctor who is utterly frustrated and exhausted because you are literally unable to provide the care that you know your patients genuinely need. It also sounds like you don’t have much professional support due to the mass exodus of medical professionals from the field.
I work in healthcare in Australia, and while we have access to free medical care in state-funded hospitals, and they are really great for emergency treatment, the wait time for non-urgent surgeries is often years away unless you go private. (And very few can afford that. We’re not at American -style prices yet, but won’t be long!) Almost all GPs charge a fee from which you are entitled to a rebate from Medicare. At the moment, a 15 minute consult costs approximately $75 from which you get a rebate of about $27. We also pay for all of our prescribed medications, but we have a pharmaceutical benefits scheme which absorbs most of the cost. The average medication covered by this tends to cost between $12 and $30. While our system isn’t perfect by any means, it weeds out a lot of time-wasters at the GP.

I'm sorry I can't give medical advice here for obvious reasons. I definitely did not want to put people off seeing there GP for medical reasons. You need to have this chat with your GP honestly the vast majority of us would be happy to have a frank discussion.

What a load of assholery there is in dome of these responses!

I appreciate the GP service, and totally know what you mean. But then I work in education, which is similarly fucked over, and treat us like crap so...

Thank you for being a GP. If nothing else, this thread proves why there's a shortage.

@memorial I can feel your pain coming through reading your posts and how deeply this is hurting you. I am an anaesthetist and I could not do what do you do day in day out and thank you for keeping going under the stress, pressure and constant media attention. My GP saved me last year when I could barely talk from burn out, I wonder if I would be here now if I hadn’t had their support and care.

I am sorry it is so tough and I wish there was more that I could do but to say thank you.

How do you know the op doesn't have a PhD?

@Azandme
I don’t but I doubt she’d be a GP if she did