To think this is what happens when receptionists are the ones who decide whether or not you actually *see* a GP? (Ear infection)

[lCantHearYou]

Wednesday last week- woke up with an intense pain in my left ear, and assume I’ve just jammed my ear plug in a bit too far, but over an hour later the pain is still there and I can’t hear out of that ear, so I ring the GP surgery.

The receptionist, based on no medical expertise whatsoever, asks what the problem is and unilaterally decides that all I need is a telephone appointment. The GP she’s scheduled the call with is well known in our community for not doing face to face appointments if she can help it and generally having the attitude of just wanting to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.

Later that morning, GP call. I explain that I’ve been having this very intense pain for several hours now that paracetamol isn’t really touching, my ear is ringing very loudly and all external sound is very muffled and barely audible.

She decides over the course of the 3 minute call that since I’m recovering from a cold I’m probably just a bit congested, tells me to take some Sudafed/other decongestant and paracetamol and it should right itself in a few days.

I start alternating pseudoephedrine, paracetamol and ibuprofen, but the pain wakes me in the night every night.

Thursday evening DH, the DC and I travel up to PILs house.

Friday morning, DH and I leave for a long weekend abroad (on the Eurostar, thank god we didn’t fly or I’d probably have at least one ruptured ear drum).

By Friday evening the pain and hearing loss has now spread into the right ear as well. Spend the whole weekend in pain and practically deaf, which kind of spoils things somewhat.

Monday evening, we all get home. 3:00 am I wake up in so much pain I can’t keep still, DH wakes to the sight of me sitting upright, rocking back and forth with my hands clamped over the back of my head. He calls 111 who schedule a phonecall with a Dr… who rings back 3 and a half hours later and says, sounds like an infection, I can prescribe antibiotics or you can just wait and see your own GP. I opt to see my own GP, so 111 Dr puts in notes that I need a face to face appointment.

So we’re back on the phone to the surgery, to the receptionist who’s halfway through saying “I can schedule a phonecall…” when I tell her about 111 Dr’s advice to seek a face to face appointment. Then she relents and schedules one with a different GP to the one I spoke to the week before. At the actual appointment, this GP barely needs to glance in my ears before saying it’s a severe infection, inner ears are very sore and red, lots of pus and gunk and, in her words, “looks incredibly painful”.

I’ve now been on amoxicillin and cocodamol (which I’m alternating with ibuprofen) for 5 days now. I can still barely hear a thing beyond the very loud ringing and the sound of my own pulse throbbing in my ears. All external sound is very muffled and distorted. If I wait too long between taking pain meds I fucking know about it… I’ve taken to sleeping with the cocodamol under my pillow so that when (not if) the pain wakes me in the night I don’t have to grope around on my bedside table to find them. Part of my job involves being on the phone, sometimes for hours at a time, so I have to jam my earphones right into my ears and turn the volume up full, and by the end of my shift (I work very late at night) I’m doubly exhausted from the effort of straining to hear anything.

AIBU to think that if, on that first day, the receptionist or indeed the GP had paused for a moment and thought “hmmm, intense inner ear pain, badly affected hearing, maybe get her in so we can see if there’s an infection”, then I could have started on antibiotics that day and at the very least the infection would likely have been contained to one ear and might even be starting to get better? As it is the receptionist didn’t bother, the GP didn’t bother, and instead of getting better it got considerably worse, the antibiotics are making fuck all difference and I’ve now had almost two weeks of intense pain and hearing loss for no good reason? And AIBU to be pretty pissed off about it?

Sorry for the twilight rant… I’ve just woken up feeling like the back of my skull is being squeezed. Again.

I Work for an urgent Out of Hours service and find this frustrating as in my area there are only 2 clinicians to cover an area with approximately 100,000 patients! Out of hours is supposed to be for people who develop an urgent medical need during the hours their GP practice is closed, not for those who are trying to bypass the system (frustrating as the system is).
All you are doing is making the workload unmanageable for the OOH clinicians and delaying medical attention to those who genuinely have developed an urgent medical condition whilst their GP is closed.
the OOH service is also now struggling to cover the shifts due to the very high workload and I don’t see this improving as more people are following exactly what you are doing.
unfortunately this is not the answer

I couldn't deal with the health business in the UK. I live in Israel and the system is based on the NHS but here it works.
I hope you're feeling better. Nothing worse than ear ache.
I also had a problem with a nurse many many years ago. Thr nurse decided I didn't need to see the doctor and syringed my ears and burst my ear drum. I had an infection with discharge. I still have a lot of trouble with the ear and see a doctor every few months. This is 60 years after the fact.
Look after your ears.

Here's my 2p. I'm British, I lived in the UK from birth in 1981 until I left in 2018 to go and live in Taipei, Taiwan. The difference in treatment and efficiency between the NHS and the Taiwanese healthcare system is world's apart.

Here in Taiwan, you schedule an appointment online with whichever doctor you want to see (based on your needs) and you go in and see them. There is no waiting time. I can walk into a hospital right now and get to see a Dr within 30mins.

The level of care here is exceptional and the efficiency is just out of this world. I recall being told to wait for 7 months for a brain scan in the UK...I ended up paying out of pocket with Nuffield Health. The NHS did not resolve my issue and by this time I was ready for leaving to live in Taiwan. When I arrived here and got my national health insurance sorted out, I went to the hospital, got a brain scan immediately, and resolution of my issue within 1 hour. The cost? It was a fiver for the brain scan and 1.50GBP for the Dr's appointment.

I hate to say it but the NHS seems like a medieval system in comparison, utterly stretched and ridiculous.

www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4106372

The doctor acted entirely appropriately. In the likely context of a totally full (and then some) surgery list they reasoned that a painful ear for a few hours wasn't the most important patient to see that day as as pp have said it was unlikely to have changed much. The OP then wasted 111's time as she seeked their advice but refused the antibiotics they offered and now is whinging because this spoiled her holiday a bit.

OP please don't bother complaining about the doctor or the surgery. It will only serve to demoralise the staff involved even further and might be that final straw that causes that GP to leave like many are doing. Their treatment was fine.

Very simple question to muse over for you and the the many other arrogant people who seem so sure that GPs are lazy and have it easy.... why does no f%*ker want to do the job then????

Couldn't agree more, when pregnant I thought I might be miscarrying and called into our village doctor to be told by the receptionist there was nothing wrong with me, just first pregnancy twinges and I should go home and rest, no need to see a doctor. Needless to say I was miscarrying and unfortunately lost the baby. I would have anyway whether I'd seen the doctor or not but I would have had help quicker and frankly it wasn't her call to make.

OP please don't bother complaining about the doctor or the surgery. It will only serve to demoralise the staff involved even further and might be that final straw that causes that GP to leave like many are doing. Their treatment was fine.

What a pathetic comment. Utterly ridiculous. Wtf is actually going on in this country that people go around talking like this. Patients should not be deterred from complaining for treatment they’re not happy with because of nonsense claims it’ll make doctors leave. How stupid.

Well it used to work reasonably well here, until COVID and 10+ years for Conservative austerity.

Please write to the Practice Manager. While true that not all ear problems need antibiotics, your symptoms suggested an infection- and one which may have done lasting damage to your hearing

I had the same problem except I did get to see my GP. They said it’s nothing to worry about and it’ll go away on its own. Ended up having to pay £100 for a private doctor who said it was severe and I had to have a suction thing which pulled out a lump of pus! I could hear again after!

Totally complain - she didn't even look in your ear and it got worse. I'm so fed up with telephone appointments for things that need face-to-face appointments.

Our surgery opened up an on line form for you to request appointments etc. They reduced when it was open so much that it only opens between 6am and 8.15am but sometimes less than that. It's impossible to contact them at all if you work as that's when I'm travelling.

This part needs to change - I cannot understand why GPs are the only people not being face-to-face when the rest of us have to just get on with it.

Complain, if there's no satisfactory reaponse, CQC.

Well it used to work reasonably well here No it didn’t! The demands on the NHS have increased, it wasn’t excellent 20 years ago and it’s only got worse as they’ve had more to cope with.

I thought it was pretty great 15 years ago to be honest

Absolutely COMPLAIN everywhere you physically can. I don’t think the receptionist was the problem. Is the GP who decided that you don’t need any further appointments or treatments, minimised your condition without a check up and caused your condition to deteriorate. It seems like minimising people’s suffering and gaslighting them is their first duty this days. They might be overstretched somehow (who is not?!) however they are NOT poor, they are well paid and rewarded. They have to deliver and they have to change their attitudes and pay some respect to their patients.

Erm, you could’ve gone into a walk-in centre of the pain was that bad or taken the 111 doctor’s advice and started antibiotics a week earlier but you chose not to. Yes, medical services aren’t as responsive as they once were and we all know the reasons for that but you didn’t exactly help yourself here either.

I thought it was pretty great 15 years ago to be honest

If you think children waiting 5-10 years for diagnosis of things like autism, women waiting similar lengths for endometriosis diagnosis… the list goes on… none of that is great. It has only slightly improved under tories but nowhere near enough.

My gp does phone calls. The last 3 times they’ve called me within an hour and a half and said “yep, need to see you so can you get here within the hour or would later be better?”
Day 1 of ear infection wouldn’t usually get antibiotics as they actually do very little and are needed only in more severe infections so even if you’d been seen the advice is the same.
i actually love the gp phone call as it could save me a trip in but if they need to see me, that happens too. A year ago he arranged a blood test without me having to go to the surgery (I work in a hospital so could pop upstairs to phlebotomy with the form). It was fab. Services are changing and it’s not all bad.

started antibiotics a week earlier it was an hour at most, try reading the OPs actual story before commenting.

You NEED to make a complaint, you were treated badly by the receptionist and the GP! You didn't need to suffer in the way you have.

I got Sinnusitus! Bear with me!!! I got prescribed antibiotics over the phone for it. A week later I had developed ear pain and deafness. So rang to see if I could see a GP! I saw a practice Nurse who told me I'd just finished a course on antibiotics, so let them work! But it does looks sore so I'll give you some antibiotic ear drops! This doesn't do a thing! Pain is horrific, deafness is driving me crazy, I'm vomitimg, crying in pain! 4 days later,
Husband calls GP surgery and gets me an appointment somehow with a GP! She Immediately diagnoses me with a severe infection called Mastiditus! Tells me she'll send antibiotics to the chemist and I MUST rest as it's very serious! Serious to the point of going to A & E if it gets worse! By 5.30 antibiotics are not at the chemist, I call the practice and ask if they can check where the prescription has been sent to! The GP hadn't sent it, noone knows why! So another GP looks at my notes and sends the prescription over. But again reiterates that its a serious infection. Weekend progresses, so does the infection! My ear is sticking out! I have swelling behind my ear, my face is swollen, I'm going dizzy, I'm deaf and after 3 weeks of this infection no better. The following week I finished the antibiotics and no better with the ringing of serious infection in my ears I call the gp! Who says she'll see me the following day but if it gets worse to ring 111. That night I couldn't handle the light I'm clammy, temperature is 34.6 I'm shaking. Husband rings 111 who send me to A & E! It's packed no beds, no room for me to sit in. I cant handle any of it so I discharge myself. 2 days later, doctor rings me asks me how I am, I'm no better so she sends me back to the hospital to be admitted onto a ward! The ward confirmed I have Mastiditus but they have no beds and don't want to admit me anywhere so send me home! With instructions to rest!!!
Last week I called to see if I could speak or see a GP, she rings me! I go through it all and again I'm told it's serious! And she referred me to ENT A & E department at a local hospital. The appointment is a week later!

Make sure you keep going back of it doesn't get any better!!!

I’d be making a formal complaint to your GP practice …. Mine texts me after almost every contact to tell me how to do so !
….. funnily enough, as they’re so open about it, I’ve not felt the need to do so.

The telephone system works for some things and not for others. This was a case of should have been seen. My FIL retired this year and said it was due to being pressured not to see patients. His words “someone will die because you need to look at a patient. Sometimes the way someone walks in will tell you more about how they are then what they say”. He’s a very good doctor and his retirement was mourned. But he was being reprimanded for seeing too many people face to face.

We need big super surgeries with resident GP's and added locus and P/T. Everyone turns up as and when and takes a number ticket and waits their turn. Urgent cases should be sent to front of queue.

I have done this system overseas and it gets the job done for most cases. Of course, people needing specialist help should have that at the GP.

It isn't the receptionists fault, when you had the telephone appointment the doctor could have called you in if they thought it was appropriate at that time.

I'd definitely have called back before I went away for the weekend.

@IpsoFactor30

where are you going to get the doctors from?

Or instead of leaving it a week in intense pain you could have phoned the next day and said you want a second opinion? Or at any time between it getting worse and a week later.

I had minor ear pain, until suddenly I didn’t, and it was so intense I couldn’t actually talk to anyone on the phone and my husband had to call 111, when he then heard my ear drum perforate from the outside. If you think it has changed or a doctor is wrong, call again, call 111, don’t just leave it, they don’t know it’s getting worse, doctors have thousands of people they have to see.

Quite. The lack of GPs reflects insufficient medical students 15 years ago. Labour invested several billion in the NHS as PFI loans - it is costing the NHS £80 bn to pay back £13 bn of PFI investment. Yes there could have been more investment since then but the NHS is a money pit. Many of the problem stems from the compromises needed to bring private businesses and charities that made up 1940s health care into the NHS. GPs are nearly all still private businesses and always have been. Covid has then made it all worse with increased demand and staff absences.