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.

GPS have always been private since the NHS was formed. It's not new. Anyway there is still a gp shortage regardless of the salaries. Probably more due to lack of job satisfaction and stress due to the rest of the NHS not functioning

Our surgery used to be fabulous but it has gone downhill over the last few years to the point when I actually despair. Receptionists are helpful and do what they can, but getting to actually see someone is virtually impossible. Speaking to a nurse practitioner is the usual offering or a GP if you insist and say the situation is urgent but face to face - forget it unless you’re prepared to wait weeks.

It's not the receptionist's fault, it's the GP. And then you sought further medical advice which you rejected.

That’s shocking - I don’t understand why they haven’t resumed seeing patients- it’s their job !

Ylots of minor ear issues hp away on their own without antibiotics. We shouldn't over prescribe them. But in this case you shouldn't have left it so long to go back to the doctor. Your symptoms clearly got worse after the initial phonecall that should have triggered you to call the doctor again? You left it too long. Did the initial doctor not say if the symptoms get worse or don't improve you should call back?

To be fair for the receptionist, if you were aware that GP wasn't good at her job, you could have requested a different one.

Our GP doesn't even have the receptionist "triage" us. Oh no, we have to ring the GP's, the receptionist then emails an online form for us to fill out. We then get a text to say the GP "will look at it soon and decide whether to phone or text" . If anybody does not have an email address then they have to dictate to the receptionist who fills out the form on their behalf, which, if it's an intimate problem, can be very embarrassing. It's a fucking joke.

A G.P receptionist told my dad his chest pains were indigestion. He had a heart attack the next day 🙄

My mother’s GP (who also won’t do face to face calls) told her for months and months that the pain in her chest was a pulled muscle, despite her having real difficulties breathing. When she told him it was getting no better, he said he would prescribe her some steroids in case it was pleurisy, “but stood by his diagnosis of a pulled muscle.” She’s just died of terminal lung cancer. I’m not saying that the outcome would have been any different, but the pain could have been managed better, and the fluid on her chest diagnosed and drained sooner, to help with the breathlessness.

Our doctors always put you in for a phone call sometimes it with a nurse. The receptionist is so rude and horrible they just do anything to avoid seeing you. GPs just arnt doing much atall which puts more pressure on the hospitals they get paid shit loads for doing not much. How can they diagnose properly on the phone it's ridiculous. I hope you get well soon

Because there are not enough appointments. The receptionists are trained who to make appointments for , who to make phone calls gif and where to signpost the rest.
100% not the receptionist fault.
mid you rang at 11am for example all of the appointments are long gone. Other than with the duty dr. And they usually make those themselves after a triage call. Sounds like you were added to that list. That’s the usual procedure. Unless they have a practice nurse, and you could have been put there instead. If there were any appointments…

Not the receptionists fault, GP gave watch and wait advice which was reasonable . You then went away ( not sensible) and turned down a prescription by second GP ( not sensible) .
No wonder it got worse.

This is why I have voted you are being unreasonable.

Our GP's surgery has a flowchart the receptionists follow when people ring for appointments. It's not them that decide the criteria for different types of appointment.

The 111 doctor offered you a prescription which you turned down, preferring to wait - madness. I'd have snapped their hand off to get what you need. If it was that bad, why wait?

Take time off work and concentrate on getting better - if you've had 5 days of antibiotics and it's not improving it sounds as though you need something stronger.

But there does need to be some form of triage system or else people booking time wasting appointments will get seen before those whose who are genuinely ill

That. It's the doctors who have issued their receptionists with these instructions. Both at my surgery and my mum's, when you call, a recorded message says that the receptionists will ask you what the problem is.

It's a smart move. The receptionists get to take all the flack instead of them.

Having said that, my phone appointments have been very good and I've been called in for a face to face appointment from those appointments where necessary.

We need to stop the 'it's not the receptionist fault'. They are part of the surgery and should be feeding back to the GPs.

I think the problem is that those who shout the loudest get heard and given this seems to be the only way we all need to shout.
In that situation if my GP just wouldn't see me I would go to A&E.

I also think it's very unfair that it's such a lottery. This wouldn't happen at my surgery.

Not sure anyone is defending then NHS as it is today, after almost 13 years of systematic programmes to defund and impose top down management culture....

I suspect people are supporting the idea of what it could be, appropriately resourced and managed.

And before anybody parrots the 'how much money do you want to throw at it' maybe do some research and see that we spend comparatively little compared to our gdp per capita. Furthermore, nobody has ever managed to explain to me how any other system makes the total cost less? It just moves expense around so that instead of everyone paying based on their means, everyone pays a bit less and the shortfall is shifted to service users, which is disproportionately people who can't afford any Co pay type options, so the bill gets picked up by the state anyway.

@cosmiccosmos - the balance of power is with the doctors though so if there are limited appointments it doesn't matter how many times reception staff complain, it's not going to change things.

OP I would have started the conversation telling the receptionist the 111 Dr had said I needed a face to face appointment. No pussyfooting around.

I voted YABU as you did several things wrong, 1 accept telephone appointment in the first place, 2 wait so long and go on holiday etc when clearly still ill and in pain, continue to wait til your husband had to call 111, decline anti biotics from the 111 doctor and go to see the GP again?? What was the point in that. Also not go and get checked up again when it's clearly not improving. You have to stand up for yourself these days and you failed to do any of that. No ones fault but your own sorry.

GP service in this country isn’t fit for purpose. This level of service would be unacceptable in any other country I’ve lived in ( Europe, ME and Africa, comes to something when I say I witnessed better, faster medical care in a developing African country than England)
I ended up in A&E as a GP ( who’d never met me) instructed me to take the wrong level of medication. When my complaint was “ investigated” ( read whitewashed) she blamed the receptionist for not giving her the correct information, even tho I had during the phone call. I wouldn’t stand for this shit show from a vet, my dog gets better health care than I do.

As much as GP receptionists get bad rep, they are trained to triage people using set criteria and that is what the receptionist will have done, hence she scheduled a phone call with a dr.

I personally don't see that this falls on the receptionist she did her job, it comes down to the fact GP's are not pulling their weight to support the failing NHS and hence people with mild conditions are ending up in A&E because GPs are not triaging, conducting F2F apts etc, the whole system is failing, it's only a matter of time before it's fully privatised it cannot continue as it is.

I agree your GP should have seen you F2F, it's all a massive farce.

I've found kicking off (which I dislike doing) helps, a little. Sometimes they'll just try getting away with fobbing you off. You have to stand your ground, demand better care...as sad as that is.

I recently had some terrible maternity care from my GP (not prescribing correct medication, no F2F etc) and I complained, they jumped all over it. Now if I ever call...I seem to be offered a F2F appointment.

Sad times.

What’s the solution guys?

if GPs are lazy and being paid too much why is there such a shortage? (I’m not a GP btw).

I would never be so utterly arrogant as to say that somebody who's job I've never done or even shadowed is 'not doing much' It's this kind of attitude that's causing doctors to leave in their drones. It's honestly like being in an abusive relationship. They will never be good enough to keep this failing system and they will be gaslighted to believe it's their fault when it does fail

We pay GPs shedloads of money, but the 'cult' of the NHS stops people making criticisms because we should be grateful. Latest data from NHS Digital shows that GPs contracted to the NHS earning an average of £142,000, and that's after their practice expenses.

England
The estimated average income before tax of GPs in either a General Medical Services or a Primary Medical Services practice was:
£111,900 for combined (contractor and salaried) GPs
£142,000 for contractor GPs
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/gp-earnings-and-expenses-estimates/2020-21

You should have sought help on Friday/ over the weekend when it got worse. It’s not the GP’s fault that you were in France and had to wait until Monday.

Wearing earphones in your ear at top volume won’t be helping. Get some over the ear headphones or take time off work sick to recover, surely it’s common sense that if you have an ear infection the last thing you should be doing is putting anything into the ear until it’s healed.