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.

But why didn’t you take the antibiotics from 111? You’ve not had the best experience but you’ve also made it harder for yourself too

I would have phoned them again tbh if it was that bad. I am not sure why you didn't do this if you were going away on a trip.

What do you regard as 'pulling their weight' then? How many extra patients do you expect them to see? How much of their life do you think they should spend in their surgery? How much of their own physical and mental health should they sacrifice? I'd love for the people that seem so sure that the NHS is only failing because of 'lazy GPs' to actually quantify this.... Maybe GPs should provide video evidence of what they actually do and how many extra hours they do and how under pressure not to cause serious harm to somebody they actually are. I guarantee it still wouldn't be enough...

So about the same amount per year we'll be paying Truss for the rest of her career for screwing up the country for 40 days.... what's your point exactly?

And yet there is a massive shortage and GPs are leaving in droves?

how do those salaries compare to what GPs get on the continent, Canada or the Antipodes?

in addition, why do you think GPs should not be remunerated on a par with eg company directors/lawyers?

Our surgery also offers us an online system where you can write down your problem and then the gp will determine a phone call or in person appt. I had a mental health problem recently and they were very good at getting me seen and helped fairly quickly so it's not all bad.

I know the answer to the workforce problem!

pay them less! That’ll work!!

committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/news/172310/persistent-understaffing-of-nhs-a-serious-risk-to-patient-safety-warn-mps/

Sorry you are unwell but it's not the Receptionists fault, they do not triage. They merely take messages to pass into the GP. The GP triage and do what they want to do.

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

obviously you haven't had a good experience, but seriously why didn't you go off sick? Are you cleaning or replacing your headphones at the end of each use? If not,you are making it worse.

Secondly you have to jam my earphones right into my ears and turn the volume up full that really can't be good for you

In all fairness even if they had diagnosed an infection the first day, the current guidelines are they don’t prescribe antibiotics straightaway. Most ear infections clear up in the same amount of time they would with antibiotics.

m I would have called back again before I travelled if I were going away or if it had got worse.

My mum wanted a face to face for a weird bit of skin that started bleeding. GP would only do phone.

Based on the over the phone description my Mum gave GP decided it was nothing to worry about.

It kept bleeding and somehow my Dad managed to get her seen privately through his work health care and guess what… it’s skin cancer. She’s going to have it removed shortly and luckily it hasn’t spread.

I understand perhaps my Mum didn’t describe it well but that shouldn’t be in her, she should’ve been seen!

This^

@Cheeseandcrackers86 I'm sure GPs are nice and work hard, but they are damaging themselves and their own cause with their utter refusal to go back to face-to-face appointments.

Oral antibiotics are not that good for outer ear infections. First line is usually ear drops with steroid and antibiotic. This may be why yours is not doing anything.

A swab needs to be taken and I’d be prescribing you some cipro and steroid drops until it comes back.

Did you complain to the practice manager? Next time, go to a pharmacy and get a note from them stating you need an urgent appointment. They cannot force the doctor’s surgery to give you an appointment but it would be going against medical advice not to. Or call 111.

I think you should have been more persistent and got an appointment on Friday if it worsened. Definitely should have take the antibiotics from the out of hours GP.

Have you noticed how we are now very well used to telephone appointments? Ten years ago they were only scheduled as a privilege for the people who could not come to the surgery, now it is the norm.

The problem isn't the funding method , which the WHO regards as one of the most efficient in the world btw, it's the level funding and staffing. Too little of each.

Incidentally, did you know our beloved government cut medical school placments by 25% this year? That'll sort everything out for us.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62594141

My sympathies op - I too have had a horrendous ear infection and the pain was shocking, the only thing I’ve experienced that is comparable with labour. This was before Covid and bullshit phone calls though and I saw a GP who took it very seriously - I still completely lost my hearing in the affected ear for a good while.

I can’t bear the GP phone calls - I recently had a bite that may have indicated Lyme disease and it was all done with photos and phone calls - absolutely ridiculous. I used to really rate our local GP and felt very lucky, but now they are crap. Phone calls are problematic for so many reasons - people with poor mental health often struggle to use the phone for a start, so many people struggling will be missed.

I would definitely complain.

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

YABU for not accepting the 111 doctor's offer of antibiotics.

Did they not ask for a photo? Photos can be so much better than seeing in real life. If they didn’t, that’s appalling.

Non healing lesions should be seen within a few weeks by dermatologist.

The NHS is a joke. I have been injured and am seeking legal redress. My DH is going to die soon due to a mistake by a junior doctor.

To anyone readng on here. If you suspect for a second you have been given duff advice, go back, seek a second opinion, hassle the living daylights out of them. If I had done that, we would not be forced to sell our home.

Tell that to our politicians.

The fact is in Britain at the moment, with the cultural attitudes, inequality, communication breakdown and class conflict, there is no option to tge NHS other than the American system.

Britain is not a democracy and this is what our leaders want. They want a system of a few rich people and many impoverished. They want the American system.

At this point in time we barely have a healthcare system. I also question to what extent we have a country. There is no unity. And no, it is not all due to Brexit. This was a very different country 50 years ago.

I am a GP. I see almost entirely F2F now. The truth is though that when there's simply too many patients needing intervention and not enough time then you simply have to say no sometimes. As the general public you can either accept this or you can fight the system that's forcing this situation. Fighting people who actually care enough to work tirelessly to keep the system afloat will only cause these people to become increasingly more stressed and disillusioned in the end and what do you think will happen when that reaches critical mass?

You poor thing OP. Thats terrible service from the receptionist and the GP! I had an ear 8nfection last week and I know what hell you're going through. I called our doctors reception on Saturday morning after the ear infection developed during Friday night. They're closed on Saturday but arranged an urgent appointment that morning at a neighbouring GP surgery. I was seen within 2 hours of calling and given antibiotics, steroids and codeine.

As someone who has had recurring ear infections all my life ( at least 2- 3 a year ) I now tell them what I want over to phone, I tell them I know the symptoms and the medication that suits it best . For me my ears work well having Otomize Ear spray Hope you get relief soon.