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.

OP move to Ireland.

There is a GP shortage especially female GP's.

Unless you are retired, disabled, unemployed or a low earner then GP visits are €60 a pop.

You won't have patients coming for minor issues unless they are covered by a medical card.

New GP's are refusing medical card patients and opening as private gp care only.

Now I wouldn't encourage poor overworked pharmacists to move to Ireland - they're an invaluable service to people who don’t qualify for free care and can't afford €60, we rely heavily on the pharmacist advice.

Well said

"Unless you are retired, disabled, unemployed or a low earner then GP visits are €60 a pop."

There is something to be said for that. People don't value a service if it is free.

OP, its a thankless task being a GP.

Apparently one of the very small benefits of COVID was that all the timewasters, multiple blood tests, lonely "Dr Google is the greatest" people were at home. It sounds like they are making up for lost time. They are good at complaints if you ignore them.

Retire before you lose your temper, possibly? And maybe do a spot of locum work when you choose.

"If you are a person who is sensible and respectful then clearly OP is not talking about you."

DH was all of those things but he wasn't treated that way. He rarely went to see the doctor yet, when he tried because he had turned bright yellow, he was made to feel like he was making a fuss about nothing. They had his life in their hands and he didn't get the treatment he deserved.

^Retire then^

^She probably will - along with many colleagues - and then people will complain about that.^

Jesus there'll be no teachers or general practitioners in the future in the UK. 🙈

So when and why has everything changed OP? It sounds like this is pre-covid?

And what would you do about it if you could? I suspect the onslaught of menopause stuff is because a lot of people weren't coming before (?), so hopefully that will calm down. Is it about getting more practice nurses to triage and police compliance? (I realises nurses are in short supply) And what else?

I don’t think it’s fair at all to blame patients for your burn out, to be honest. It’s the government’s fault combined with poor management systems.

Like others, I’m yet to meet anyone in real life who runs to the GP over the first minor ailment. Everyone I know puts it off until it’s impossible to do so for any longer.

Why would the vast majority of the population willingly waste their time?

Firstly, good luck actually speaking to someone for the first 3 hours of a surgery opening. Then, if you do manage to get through before all appointments are taken, be prepared to have to divulge far too much personal information to a receptionist. Then, wait for 4/5 hours for a call back which will take all of 2 minutes and you’ll likely not be seen anyway.

I don’t think it’s believable that hoards of people are willingly wasting time at a GP surgery when you have that many hoops to jump through?

What sounds much more likely is the extra stress and pressure of the job in post Covid times, people coming out of the woodwork with ailments they’ve ignored for several years (due to Covid and being told to stay at home), and your colleagues leaving is why you feel like this.

I refuse to believe that being a GP has only became this hand holding exercise for the last few years.

Oh, and also, I don’t think it was right of you to say to a PP you “feel sorry” for them, etc. The poster has clearly experienced a severe amount of trauma and certainly didn’t need such a patronising response from a GP.

It’s responses like that that actually fuel the fire of the argument that GPs are lazy and rude. You’ve already proved the latter with one simple reply.

There is something to be said for that. People don't value a service if it is free.
I think that is the reason UK teachers and schools get such a hard time too because it is free, it makes the public believe they are in charge.
From stationary to glue expenses placed on the teacher it's disrespectful.

@memorial

I'm sorry, I have read your posts and skimmed the rest. You sound absolutely worn out and emotionally exhausted. It seems clear to me that you have been pushing yourself very hard for a very long time. I think though, that the reason you are at this place is because you care so much, and because you were indeed one of the wonderful GPs and I am sure that you have been important to a lot of your patients, and the people that you work with. I have no answers how to fix this and I just want to say that please don't get to the stage where you are so burned out that you can never really recover. Think what advice you would give a patient you care about, and maybe see a counsellor.

Some of the responses you have had verge on shameful, but they are not indicative of our society. I came onto this forum because I thought the good outweighed the bad. But the bad just seeps in, and it can seep in without you realising the damage it is doing. I think this may be true of your work as well.

You need to start doing what is right for you. If that means retiring, leaving the NHS, then you have to do it. You do not owe it your mental health.

There is some people who overly use the GP

They need to let the rest of the country know how they get an appointment, to be able to overly use one.

Not at all unreasonable, OP. I've heard shocking tales of time wasters, of people using ambulances as a taxi service and 999 just to chat because they're lonely. I think fining the true time wasters is the next step. Not just charging - then all you'll have are wealthy time wasters - but if you turn up with a sore throat that just came on that morning, fifty quid. They'd soon learn to take their strange whinging somewhere else.

I find it difficult to understand that you have no empathy regarding the patient that complained. Surely they weren't aware of the medical emergency another was facing? Perhaps they were nervous about the appointment and wanted it out the way? Perhaps the appointment has been cancelled and rescheduled several times? Perhaps they'd waited months and months for it? Perhaps they had struggled to arrange transport to the appointment?

Presumably if this had been dealt with adequately in clinic then an apology wouldn't have been needed. The surgeon needing to perform surgery is understandable and unfortunate for the patient whose appointment was cancelled, an apology for rearranging the appointment is not disproportionate.

I wonder if the tone of your post is a result of the frustrations of your job? Or perhaps your tone causes the frustrations of others? You come across as lacking in compassion and understanding.

20 years ago I was chatting to our departmental head of IT and he said he used to be a GP. I asked why he wasn't one any longer and he said he couldn't bear listening to people moaning all day. I can't imagine being head of IT was much different.

But seriously I thought most people had given up trying to get an appointment with their GP and are now going to their pharmacy. And they get paid even less than GPs and are being badly screwed over - far worse than GPs. GPs should have let pharmacies do all the covid and flu vaccinations and focused on the more seriously ill patients now not getting referrals for cancer. Instead they did them to chase the money. GPs are on a far better contract than dentists, opthamologists and pharmacies.

And yes GPs are private companies contracted by the DH and NHSE. And they can earn other private income.

I can get a GP appointment pretty easily. My pharmacy though is rubbish for health advice. Because my children have a genetic illness they refuse to give even basic advice and just say talk to the GP.

So much nonsense and misinformation in one post. Too late to even try and explain. Time to try and put my insomnia to bed.

Disgraceful post. You're miserable and lonely? Here's a fifty quid fine. Not the solution.

OP
definitely go to bed. This thread won't help you.

so much misunderstanding on MN these days, it's surreal.

I suffer with health-anxiety and your attitude has actually made me nervous

I’m not sure if you meant to prove OP’s point but for me you certainly have.

When a patient who is eating unhealthy UPF presents with IBS , do you have a Frank conversation about how bad processed food is, how are bodies are not good at coping with it and they need to work on gut biome and eat 30 veg/fruits/seeds/beans etc a week? These are the sorts of convos that need to be happening, but most GPs are scared to have them because it’s stepping over a clinical line into preaching about lifestyle. But we do need to educate people

There needs to be a conversation about whether this is the GP’s problem at all. The individual’s problem, for putting shit into their body? The gov’t’s problem, both from the point of view of cost (or not… maybe X Corp makes enough money and pays enough taxes to justify thousands of dim-witted pillocks dying early because no one gave them individual counselling about how crisps and beer were bad for them), or from the point of view of why UPFs are so popular in this country? Is it really the job of a doctor with however many years experience to tell someone to eat more veg?

OP - I’m sorry. I don’t have anything to suggest (that’s fit for print, anyway). I’m sorry it’s like this.

Stop investing in the NHS, OP. Its stopped caring about you. You don't want to break yourself because a sense of duty. That helps no one, and you have your first duty to yourself. You well know that even if you leave, then they will struggle on without you regardless.

I'm sorry OP. There have been some pricks on here. I couldn't do your job for all the money in the world. Thank you for doing it.

YANBU. I completely understand you. My sister is one of those people. She is at the GP for every little thing that it is beyond ridiculous.

I work in mental health and we also get people who we help who in turn stop doing what they have learnt and are back at us within 6 months only to be told/taught the exact same thing all over again. Alot of people do want quick fixes, and i suppose that's understandable, but sometimes the only person who can help you, is you, and alot of people just don't understand that. (With some physical and mental health issues - obviously not everything). It is very frustrating.

I think its difficult. I think some people do go to the doctors for every little sniffle. However all the usual services have been cut back so I think everything just ends up getting pushed onto doctors. Sometimes I'm aware the thing I'm contacting the doctor about is fairly minor but I can't access the clinic/hospital/nurse etc who I need to treat me directly! Minor injuries units have their hours cut, 111 refer everyone to the GP or to A&E, the pharmacists are restricted on what they can advise or give out, everything online tells you to "speak with your GP" at the first mention of a problem, minor query or common side effect of medication. Personally I've been to two appointments in the last three years but I'm always having to call about my son's skin every time they act like its a huge inconvenience for me to be there for a child's eczema, which I understand but I can't buy the cream he requires so we have to renew our prescription with an appointment due to policy. Everything needs overhaul to cut out the middlemen and make it run smoother imo.

I'm not a GP, but my mum is, so I tend to think GPs are fabulous human beings. That said, I think you're very understandably exhausted and burnt out, OP, but tend to agree with the posters who are expressing concern that your apparent anger might be a bit misdirected.

I've been financially fortunate enough to be able to work basically full-time in the voluntary sector now and I see a government that is very happy to decimate the network of support services. Brexit, terrible working conditions, ridiculous levels of bureaucracy, lack of funding, shockingly low pay are all conditions that this government has allowed to flourish and of course that's killing the NHS (and probably a lot of its staff). Education, the NHS, housing, social care, mental health services- there's never been enough, but the past 12 years have been absolutely dire. People are cold, they're hungry, they're insecurely housed, they're missing teeth because they can't get dentistry, they're worn to the bone with caring for children with special needs, ageing parents, working several jobs just to put food on the table. Of course people are ill and exhausted and overweight and frightened. It's a shame that this trickles down to you in a way that makes your life and job a miserable experience, but I do think the kind of hand-holding these people need has always been part of the remit of being a GP?

Did you see the article today about hungry children? The children over seven whose families earn more than £7,400 a year (after tax and before benefits) do not meet the criteria for free school meals. This is not a country that is fostering a healthy population.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/cost-of-living-crisis-free-school-meals-poverty-children-food-friends/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1661249319

Sleep well OP knowing most pp's understand and appreciate how frustrating the job is.