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'd call gp back for face to face appointment now you've had 5 days of antibiotics and it's not improving ,if they won't see you go to a and e, you have grounds for a complaint too at the gp surgery

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.

That is a terrible loss.

GPS should be back face to face now everything else is

The NHS in principle is good, it's the fact that the Conservative government have an ideological aversion to it and have deliberately starved it of funding over the last 12 years that's the problem. They WANT people to start saying "it's not working, let's get rid" so they can implement a US-style system. And anyone who thinks they would implement a system that benefits the actual people instead of a US-style system that makes more money for themselves and their mates is painfully naïve. None of this is a secret. Jeremy Hunt even co-authored a book about it. Vote Conservative and this is what you get.

Experiences vary.

I had covid earlier this year, had a telephone appointment and doctor called me in, she saw me in the "hot" surgery that you accessed directly from the car park.
She saw me in her lunch hour, told me it was now pneumonia and said she was 50/50 on hospital admission. I said I would prefer to take the antibiotics and give it a chance ot improve. I got the prescription and went home.

Antibiotics helped but not 100% and I had a telephone consultation with another doctor, he said it was a positive that I had responded to antibiotics but obviously needed something stronger and I got another prescription.

Chest problems cleared but still feeling unwell. I figured post viral and gave myself time to get over it.

Come September things not getting much better, I get telephone appointment and doctor calls me in but wants blood tests first so I get a call to make an appointment for the blood tests. Got a call to say tests back and make an
appointment to see doctor. Doctor says probably long covid but I am improving so that is positive, she prescribes some supplements and a cream to deal with a skin problem I've developed. Orders xrays as I have joint pain.
Get an appointment sent from local hospital for xrays and then surgery calls to say doctor has seen results and is referring me to the hospital for a series of injections for joints. I'm off to that this morning.

Meanwhile I've had another set of blood tests that she was happy with. I am having further blood tests in 3 months to check progress.

Do I think the NHS is working? My experience is very positive and I can't think of anything else I'd have wanted them to do.

If you’re unhappy with the service you received and genuinely believe the members of staff you encountered were in the wrong then write a complaint to the practice. GP surgery’s take complaints very seriously and the feedback will be taken on board if the circumstances are as you actually describe.

The NHS is currently in crisis, there is a huge shortage of GPs which nobody ever seems to address which is having a massive impact on the availability of appointments so practices have no choice but to try their best to triage so that they aren’t missing critical illnesses. I’m sick of this blame the receptionist attitude the general public have when they can’t access a gp appointment at the very instant they demand it. There is a huge backlog of work due to the pandemic as many people avoided accessing healthcare during that time and are now presenting with long-standing illnesses and lists of complaints they want dealt with and it’s having a massive strain on the system.

Many people seem to forget that many illnesses require the process of time to establish whether treatment is actually necessary, and that a raft of self care is available, the answer is not just to ring your gp and demand an appointment the very second you wake up feeling slightly offside if this is something minor you can manage with a bit of rest, fluids and over the counter medication.

Privatisation and this romantic notion of just waltzing into your GP surgery and handing over a tenner to cure any ailment like you did one time in Spain 30 years ago is not the solution to this problem.

I urge anyone reading this who is unhappy with the current service they are receiving from the NHS to write to their MP and ask what is being done to fix the problem.

Please stop blaming the minimum wage receptionist for everything, they are not diagnosing you with anything or gatekeeping, they are simply following the orders they have been given to try and support a very strained system.

Haven't the energy for 8 pages, but am amazed you were only given amoxil for something that extreme. Very low sensitivity these days, and after 5 days it's clearly not working.
Meanwhile, if you have the gp the same info as the receptionist, then the gp clearly agrees that a phonecall was all that was required. She was wrong, but how you expect the receptionist to be BETTER at triaging than the GP ..

I had a similar experience with tonsillitis which then turned into quinsy. Had I not seen a consultant privately following a referral from the GP, who had only seen photos of my tonsils and a telephone appt two weeks later (the whole thing cost £410) and started on an aggressive course of antibiotics rather than wait to be seen by the nhs I think it’s likely I would have been hospitalised.

I had five courses of antibiotics and nearly two months of suffering because nobody took the initiative to get me into look until I paid.

It's the gp that was at fault here. Gp receptionists have a difficult job following guidance given by the GPS. However we have 2 at our surgery one is amazing the other is like getting through a brick wall and is almost rude and can be quite argumentative.

I think the main issue was going off on holiday. You initially had pain for just a few hours, yet got a GP call really rapidly. I don't think many doctors would prescribe antibiotics at that point, because you haven't given your body's defences a chance to kick in. When it was getting worse on Friday and Saturday, you should have gone to see someone again. They have doctors in Amsterdam too, oddly enough! As it was, you then called 111 and chose to wait before getting antibiotics. Then you saw the GP, who prescribed you antibiotics. So what you're moaning about seems largely to be that you didn't see a GP when on holiday and not asking to see a GP. Bit much really.

fair enough, some people don’t need to see the doctor face to face, but it’s bloody annoying when you need to see a doctor. I was feeling so depressed snd my anxiety was horrible. Phoned the surgery snd told the receptionist when asked. She gave me an appointment with the mental health nurse the following week telephone appointment. I wanted to see the doctor face to face as I was feeling awful. No appointments with doctor available. The receptionist made it clear it was the mental health nurse that was to deal with me.
had my appointment with nurse, who was lovely. But it’s not the point. The whole system is awful.

Totally agree with you.

I'm currently suffering badly with hyperemesis and have had such a nightmare actually speaking to a GP (even on the phone). Every time I fill in an e-consult (the only accepted way to contact my practice now) they just prescribe me the lowest level meds which I've already been prescribed and don't work. They don't even read the e-consult which clearly says PLEASE DON'T JUST PRESCRIBE ME AVOMINE AGAIN and PLEASE CAN I SPEAK TO A DOCTOR ON THE PHONE. I ended up hospitalised last week and I'm pretty sure it could have been avoided if I could have had some actual care from my GP. Obviously not the ideal outcome for me, and cost the NHS a good deal more money than 10 mins chatting to me would have cost.

deliberately starved it of funding over the last 12 years that's the problem

Proof? All of this didn’t happen in 12 years. You’re a fool to think that.

It's all a hell of a mess
People are literally dying because they aren't seeing their GPs and spoon me Rd being cancelled

I've been on the waiting list to see a gynaecologist for 3 years! Nobody gives shit!

I'm desperate to get my menopause/anxiety under control and I speak to a different GP every time and they just change the medication, can't get an appointment for months

I hope you are in the mend OP ear infections are a hell of a thing

On another occasion, although it was during covid early on. I woke up with half my face dropping, couldn’t smile. I didn’t feel very well. Sore eye. Went back to bed, my sister came to visit and frightened me saying it looks like a stroke. I’m only 47, no way!
she took me to A and E. went in myself and the receptionist was downright rude.
her words were don’t be silly your not having a stroke. It must be your teeth??
I should have demanded to see a doctor, but went home.
On the Monday, phoned the doctor at my surgery, had a video call. She treated me for bells palsy.
The delay from the Saturday to Monday afternoon could have caused me nerve damage to my face, thank goodness it didn’t. I think back to that receptionist and what if it was a stroke? Bloody disgrace, even her attitude was awful

It's only an ear infection which you've brought on yourself by using ear plugs at night and earbuds in the day. Your ears need to sweat and breathe, if you're stuffing things in them all the time they can't do this. You're keeping your ears in a moist warm environment and no doubt repeatedly using the same earbuds and earplugs. This is a breeding ground for bacteria which causes these infections.
The NHS and GP's are over worked, underfunded, understaffed and stressed. You've wasted the receptionist, GP and 111's time because you failed to up keep basic hygiene in your ears.
Do better!
You might also want to read up on the over use of antibiotics and the long terms effects they can have on your body. Plus the wider dangers of superbugs in our community. This will explain why they were reluctant to prescribe at the first phone call.

I think screening by receptionists is a dodgy practice and unfair on everyone. However, in this scenario, you did a number of things that would not have helped your cause.

You could have insisted on the initial call with the GP that you’d like them to look at your ear.

You went on a short break when you were unwell. The travelling will not have helped. Your body needed rest to recover.

You didn’t accept antibiotics from the 111 Dr and went through together wait while your condition worsened.

I’m sorry you’re ill but it’s no secret the NHS is failing. Blaming the receptionist and writing a letter complaining is fruitless. Just learn that those who shout loudest get in the current NHS and advocate better for yourself in future. And when your busy shows signs of being ill, don’t go on holiday!

Body not busy!!

My local GP practice is excellent. They do everything they can to give face-to-face appointments, but from what I've seen on this and other threads we are beyond lucky here.

This is the info from the NHS website.

What the OP had may have been an inner ear infection but it could have started with an outer. You can see a pharmacist instantly so I think it's always worth checking what they say.

I’m not a GP but I have friends and colleagues who are. I don’t earn that type of salary, but I don’t begrudge them. Do you really expect people who often spend nearly a decade in training (never mind the tens of thousands in student debt accumulated and the several thousands paid each year in insurances just to be able to practice) to take home a more ordinary salary? Really?

I work alongside the NHS and as far as I see it, GP’s and other frontline professionals cop it from the - understandably frustrated - public because the people who really do suck the life (and funds) from the NHS are invisible to the public. I see them on meetings every day. They work full time from the comfort of their homes and not in patient facing roles - or even from an office these days. Most times, they have never worked in public facing roles, they have titles of 4 words or more that make no sense at all as to what they actually do or are responsible for, and they manage to bullshit their way through their lifelong career shifting paper and creating layers of bureaucracy in order to keep themselves in a role and eventually claim a hefty NHS pension. It is the layers and layers of these people who never see a sick patient in their entire career that people should be infuriated by. It is these people that create and play into, as another poster put it, a top-down management culture that is costing us all dearly, and it is the proliferation of these roles that takes away much needed funds from patient services. Don’t blame your health professionals, blame senior NHS managers for allowing the many pointless administrative managers and general pen pushers with their ‘new’ ideas (which rarely are) and lack of lived experience to flourish. The NHS can be improved vastly by stripping back the top and middle heavy waste - as a private company would likely do - and making those who are responsible for decision making people of the right calibre, with the right clinical experience. The amount of times I have wished the general public could see the utter waste of public resources that goes on behind the scenes, within the sacred cow that is the NHS. I despair.

It is a sad state of affairs when you can't get a face-to-face appointment. I had same thing with my ear. I called at the due time to make appointments spot on 8am - Msg says 'You are 1st in the queue' - Gr8 I thinks; NO not Gr8 receptionist told me there were no appointments left [strange that 'cos they say you can't book appointments in advance]!! Told to call 111 ... well, that is all very well, but a phone call is not going to cut it, I have ringing in my ear, can't hardly hear a think and in pain - it needs to be face-to-face. The all knowing Receptionist says well you need to go to A&E then ... 'scuse me?' It is not an 'emergency' I just want the Dr to look in my ear. SO I ring 111 and they contact the GP and then my GP phones me and says "well, you need to come in for me to look at your ear, I can't do that over the phone"!!!! Spitting feathers I was ... took me three days to get in - It's a bloody joke and it's not bloody funny.

I had a similar situation a few months ago, not an ear infection, but a chest infection. I have asthma and a history of pneumonia and pulmonary infiltrates, so I know when l need antibiotics.
I tried for (literally!) a week to get through to the surgery on the phone. Either engaged or 'you are number 56th (seriously) in the queue...." (and l wasn't the only one. Our local FB group was full of people saying the same thing)
I wasn't able to physically attend the surgery, you had to use the intercom at the door, if you hadn't already an appointment, they wouldn't allow you in.

I emailed them in desperation. Got a call back from a doctor saying "You need steroids, you're having a (asthma) flare up."
I wasn't. I was coughing up stuff that looked like guacamole. I had a chest infection. Grudgingly prescribed antibiotics, which l took, but needed a second course after that.
I made a complaint to the surgery, both about the inability to contact anyone at the surgery (their 'emergency' number is the same as the regular one!), and pointing out that if l'd been given antibiotics when I'd first tried to contact them, l wouldn't have needed the second course.
They actually agreed that l was right. But now they've removed the 'contact us' and email messaging facility from their website.

Withaspongeandarustyspanner
I know it worked. I'm British but haven't lived in England for 54 years. I had a lovely doctor.

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.