To ask where have all the GPs gone?

[Lolacat1234]

Got sent to an "urgent care walk in centre" by 111 today because my 3 year old daughter has a high temp and was very unwell earlier today. Got there and very soon realised I had been sent to A&E, there is no such thing as an urgent care walk in centre, it's just another name for A&E. Sat there for 6 hours before deciding she needed sleep and her own bed and that I would try my GP surgery in the morning. Please no comments about I should have stayed, when I left there were 25 people ahead of my daughter and I had already been there 6 hours, she had lost it and was having a breakdown. My instinct said it was OK to leave, dose her up and reassess in the morning.

As I was leaving (I was the 3rd mum with a sick child to give up and go within half an hour) the receptionist just said they can't manage an out of hours service at all because there are no GPs. My friend I was chatting to told me her local surgery has no GPs at all just nurse practitioners and they bring them in from another local surgery if needed. It all seems very scary.

Where have they all gone?

It's not sustainable. Before anyone says immigration well you wouldn't cross the channel at this time of year

Our surgery had 4k EU casual workers pre Brexit/covid in hospitality etc. They're gone now and sorely missed in our tourist area

I certainly don't expect sympathy; I was merely noting how much some of us contribute for a service that is unfit for purpose.

Bearing in mind how many patients and Ill people are elderly, when younger GP's refer to their partners as "kicking the old man into the 21st Century" @justasking111 all hope for general practice is entirely lost. Despicable ageism. Is that how you deal with elderly patients? I think I can imagine your tone.

Perhaps you should reflect on the wisdom that senior partner could have shared with you. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Why do you say crossing channel? I’m not sure if you’re being serious.

Net migration is up, we have visas - but many countries are facing shortages

Eejit I'm not in the medical profession, I'm Also a pensioner, if I say my GP who's in my age group is a stubborn old fossil, then he is. He's lovely company in our walking group but so anti new methods. He'll be amused that you thought I was in the profession

You referred to the GP practice as "ours" and appeared to know its inner workings.

What on earth are you talking about??

@memorial you baffle me I'm backing GPs up all the way. You're awfully confused.

And there's always the well publicised story about that one in a million person who's developed a very rare disease that's been initially missed because it is so uncommon

I was told, repeatedly, by my GP that my chances of having cancer were "one in a million". 30 GP appointments later, with no improvement in symptoms, the GP was still holding that line even as I was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma that had ruptured my bowel just before my GP sent me home with a flea in my ear and a temperature of 41 degrees.

Deborah James has a very similar story to tell and had to go private to get diagnosed (and stay private to remain alive, I believe!)

We now know (well I do - not sure about GP's) that 1 in 10 cases of bowel cancer will be found in <50's within a generation. So GP's with their "ooh it's one in a million" are sadly talking out of their arse a lot of the time, which is why people insist on being referred to a grown-up.

My DH sees GP's "one in a million" victims in his cancer clinics every day.

Wow just wow

healthcare will surely only ever make a rod for it's own back, as medicine improves people expect treatment for anything & everything and increasingly see thier own health as something for professionals to fix rather than something they have a duty to maintain?

Wow just wow

Thanks. <preens>

Hardly defensible practice on the part of the GP though eh?

Ahhh just checking back in on this thread

I see GP bashing seems to have been elevated to a national sport...must head off and see what the Daily Hate Mail anti-GP article is about today...

I don't think anyone's bashing GPs or individuals per se. They are however noting and evidencing issues with a system that had become unfit for purpose and which does not appear to have the needs of patients at its heart. And rightly.

Honesty all round needs to become the order of the day.

Yours sincerely

Scummy patient who is not entitled to high standards or respect but must maintain gratitude and tug forlock for the very important Dr.

And people wonder why so many GP’s are leaving?

Are you denying Parker123 that many, many GPs treat patients as though they subordinate dimwits?

i only knew two GP’s when I was in the Uk - my own and my DH. Neither DH or my GP treated anyone anything less than professionally. DH had a great rapport with his patients - many came to his leaving party when he handed back his contract.

Being a GP is a nightmare particularly what they went through during Covid and the ongoing lack of funding to the NHS. I’m not sure how much longer DH’s health would have lasted. He’s only 50 but now enjoys work again. I’d recommend to any UK GP - leave - move abroad- your life will improve enormously.

I'm sorry @Parker123. What they went through during Covid? Do you mean when they shut their doors to the public who locked down for the sake of the NHS? Sadly parts of the NHS have still not locked out and are still wfh. My rheumatology consultant is irked, my dentist is irked, my dd who is neuro diverse is irked that she has not had a F2F appointment for three years.

TBF my GP service improved during Covid. Because I am tech literate making a request through the portal and cutting out the need to speak to an unhelpful receptionist was great. Until people caught on and the portal was shut by 10 due to demand. Most things I accept I don't need to visit the surgery. My 86 year old mother is befuddled by IT.

My 61 year old DH (professionally qualified) now working for the public sector in a role on a par with surgeon and pilot - regular 55-60 hour weeks - was back F2F by November 2020. Life went on for everyone but those who work in the NHS.

I wonder if you can tell me how many GPs, surgeons, nurses have been made redundant in the last twelve months? How many are worried about their jobs and the wolf at the door?

I wish you well in Canada.

How many deaths did you deal with during covid then? How many people at home and in care homes did you try and treat as they died? How many oxygen levels and 40 step tests did you do in full PPE staring into the terrified eyes of people who couldn't breath. How many times did you run into your house straight into the shower terrified to spread it to your family. How many meetings with terrified staff did you have while trying to keep patients and staff safe. How many children do you have who self harm and are suicidal because they were left at home while their single parent went to work to see dying patients every single day.How much burnout and PTSD do you have from 3 years of hell?
Go and fuck yourself

@RosesAndHellebores - thanks to this appalling government, DH and other health care staff worked throughout Covid with, initially little PPE protection (remember the hospital patients sent back to their care homes - GP’s then visited those care homes to treat residents dying of Covid ). DH and his colleagues saw patients f2f throughout lockdown - their practice was not closed. DH also volunteered to work shifts on a Covid ward at our local hospital.

Many jobs could swop to wfh - difficult but successfully but NHS workers had to reconfigure hospital wards to become Covid wards full of dying patients. You, your family and I had it easy through lockdown.

Actually @memorial I have one child who self harmed by cutting and overdosing from 2015 to 2017, years prior to Covid. In front of her, my NHS GP told me CAMHS were useless and do nothing when dd had asked for help and told me to Google a therapist off the internet. There are 300 BACP registered therapists within 20 miles of my home. None of them would take on a teenager actively harming.

It was a good job I had the means to find an adolescent psychiatrist and £8k in addition to what BUPA covered. Seven years on dd has an Oxbridge first and is teaching. Had it been merely in the hands of our GP I have no doubt she'd have dropped out of 6th form and gone on a downward spiral.

I was never terrified of Covid. The stats even at the beginning didn't indicate it was on a par with the plague. I'd have thought most GPs could have worked that out.

Neither DH or my GP treated anyone anything less than professionally This is such a silly comment- how would you know? you think either one would openly declare unprofessional behaviour?

I know my DH - saw the thank you cards patients sent him and know his character. His GP practice was local to where we lived so would often see and chat to his patients when they can up to him in the supermarket, park etc. Locally referred to as Mr Doc (no one can pronounce his name!)by the children at the local primary school when he visited to give talks.

My family and I had it easy through Covid did we Parker123?

I didn't see my mother for six months, I had to make 60 staff redundant. DH had prisoners on remand attempting suicide because their cases couldn't be heard. Some of them innocent people. MIL's dementia accelerated disproportionately because society shut for the sake of the NHS. The consequences of that decision have not yet materialised.

You carry on generalising because no-one has it as hard as a Dr. A Dr's job is to deal with disease just as an army officer's is to go to active war when it is declared. It's time the doctors stopped bloody well whingeing. There are millions of people in the UK struggling to feed themselves and heat their homes - yet our hearts must bleed for the Dr's who have blown their pensions annual allowance. Any other employee who continually slagged off their employer to every stakeholder possible would be dismissed.

The sooner the NHS is replaced with a Continential social insurance system the better. I don't know what system Canada has but I'm sure it isn't NHS. Australia doesn't have the NHS. Non wonder our Dr's find other systems better - ours doesn't work. Let's not forgetnitnwas a labour government who introduced it and got it through in the face of extreme dissent from the GPs by stuffing their mouths with gold.

@RosesAndHellebores - are you a virologist or medical researcher? What qualifications do you have in this field to comment on the risks of Covid?

As many as a well educated corporate financier who works for one of the old Big Six @Parker231.

And Bingo. Canada's healthcare system is one of social insurance. No wonder your DH is having a better quality of life.

Your self righteousness beggars belief. . I am thrilled you have found a better life in a better country. It's always lovely to to get the smell of a true socialist in one's nostrils - everything they do is always for the sake of others. It's hilarious.