To find that going to the doctors doesn't resolve the issue

[Mairzydotes]

I've recently had an appointment and it's got me thinking that I always feel fobbed off ( I feel a bit fobbed off with this one too)and they never solve the issue.

Once I had been referred for a scan , and when I spoke to a clinician for a follow up, I was told the nurse who referred me was working their notice and was referring everyone , and they wouldn't be doing anything further.

The only time I've ever felt like my issues have been taken seriously, and dealt with was in pregnancy, when my pre-eclampsia showed up in my ante- natal check up.

Some people make appointments and it seems like the health care professionals bend over backwards to help them and I feel dismissed. And these are about physical things , that can be seen . I dread to think what mental health would be like.

Does anyone else find this happens to them?

Ours has gone from having to wait weeks for an appt except for urgent on the day ones, to an E-consult system where you can only see them / have a phone call the same day, even if it is not urgent. They need to sort it out because it isn't practical for people to wait in for a call about something not urgent and they don't say when they will call, or who.

Also, you can fill in the form in detail and then get a message saying you have to do it again another day as they have had their quota for the day, no way of saving it or anything.

And this is what happens, those who can afford it even with difficulty get forced into going private, those who can’t just don’t get treated at all.
I have three chronic conditions that only got resolved when I went private. One was severe back pain which a private physio diagnosed correctly and treated, leading to vast improvement. The GP had misdiagnosed the problem after the briefest of examinations. The other two are medical conditions that the GP more or less said I had to put up with. Private specialists helped enormously for both.
I despair at the state of primary care now.

@ammpersand same kind of story when I got my MS symptoms almost 25 years ago and I kept going to the gp because I knew there was something wrong.
Broke down in tears in one apt due to frustration and was given anti depressants which I never took because they are not there to cure PissedOffNess

I'm currently going round in circles. Have had blurred vision for about 3 months now, and am type 2 diabetic so booked an appointment at the opticians. All fine apart from quite bad dry eyes, so she recommended seeing my GP as it could be a medication I'm taking that's causing it. Tried to make a GP appointment but was told very clearly by receptionist that they don't deal with eyes and I really should see an optician. Tried to explain I've done that, and they said see GP but receptionist wasn't having a bar of it. So I rang back later and told them I needed to speak to someone about my diabetes medication and now have an appointment for the end of June. I did try a private GP but they said they don't deal with existing medication reviews. Sigh.

I actually went to the GP with mental health issues. I'd had 24 hours of palpitations, heart racing and felt dreadful. When I explained why I was so stressed instead of offering a solution he simply said "you and every other working mum". I wanted a referral for counselling instead he gave me a website link to some literature then he laughed and said I appreciate from what you've said your probably not going to find the time to read this. I ended up completing a self referral 3 months later 🙄

I hear of a lot of going private. I wonder if there is planned incompetence to force everyone to pay for their health care.

The partners at my old practice are so run off their feet that they also do the following:

Partner 1: interested in dermatology and also has a private dermatology clinic. Advises patients to go there.

Partner 2: A director of a cottage hospotal commissioned to provide NHS services (minor) by the CCG as well as treating private patients. Also the school.Dr for a local boarding school.

Partner 3: GP chair of the CCG

Partners 4 and 5: private GP appointments available through some of the local.private hospitals.

If patients are lucky they get to see locums or pretty poor salaried GPs.

It speaks volumes.

The receptionists are paid minimum wage.

I recently changed practices - it's a life changer.

They send to continence clinic for pelvic floor exercises which may help with prolapse. I had absolutely no continence problems although some people with prolapse do. My GP agreed it was a really bad prolapse I was referred to the continence clinic but at the same time also referred to the hospital for possible surgery or other treatment, the hospital appointment came pretty quickly and surgery not much longer after that so I hardly got the pelvic floor treatment bit. The hospital also said the outcome from surgery is better if your pelvic floor is strong so they push for the pelvic floor bit. They also don't like surgery for prolapse if you are under a certain age apparently.

Yanbu

I can’t help but wonder if there’s some sort of key word that unlocks help.

I have a teen who has health issues and it’s taken years for him to get tests and scans 😡 I don’t want to be rude or aggressive but I think that being too nice has cost him precious time. I was fobbed off with reasoning like he must be bullied, I am attention seeking and I am overly anxious. An MRI showed issues so did I get an apology? Of course not.

This

I have very low ferritin which my gp believes is due to my heavy periods… I don’t have heavy periods but what do I know, apparently my gp knows better. I’m due another blood test in 2 months and then he might push for an iron infusion if this last attempt at tablets doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked since 2020 but sure, let’s try for anything 3 months in 2024 having taken iron tablets for the last 4 years.

Interesting @Bumblebeeinatree I didn’t get any pelvic floor info from the continence nurse. I’ve spent years building my own pelvic floor with exercises and a Kegel trainer. No other referral was available so no further treatment for me. Glad you had other referrals

I can't help but wonder if there is some kind of keyword that unlocks help.

I feel like this too .I wonder if I give off a vibe and they decide at the start of the appointment that they aren't going to take me seriously.

It has crossed my mind that there may even be a conspiracy that some people aren't to receive treatment, and the medical profession know who it is by there NHS number.

I've recently changed practices.

I've heard complaints about the others too. The one im with is nearest in distance. A large amount of them in our area have amalgamated so sometimes we have to travel miles for an appointment.

There are often Facebook posts about the phone lines being down at the doctors of a nearby town . No other organisation has their phone lines down that often.

I’ve found it really hit and miss and I wonder if part of the issue is that I don’t have a specific GP who actually know me, it’s just whoever happens to be available. So if you go in with something obvious/testable like a UTI or tonsillitis it’s all fine but I have a chronic illness (long Covid) and trying to get any sensible medical help has been largely impossible. There’s one doc in my practice who actually gets it and tries to help but there’s no continuity of care and having to explain things from scratch time and time again to varying degrees of scepticism is exhausting.

So you are complaining about your own failure to complete paperwork and admin for your own health? That is your fault, not the fault of the NHS or dentists.

A few years back I started getting intermittent severe stomach pains. During one particularly bad one, my husband dialled 999, convinced I was dying. This was during the pandemic and obviously they were busy so a paramedic rand me back a couple of hours later and it eased off so mindful of the stress they were under in a&e I cancelled it. They advised a GP follow up and i got a phone appointment a few days later.

In the interim, I consulted Dr Google. I know Dr Google is controversial, but in my favour, I'm a nurse who uses it sensibly. Gallstones came up time and time again. Most sites suggested the pain is to the right but can also be central which it was with me. Anyway I put Gallstones to the GP as a possible diagnosis, and asked for a scan. She was dismissive because of the site of the pain but agreed to the referral to rule it out.

The scan showed my gallbladder was full to bursting with stones, and I was referred for surgery. I had a phone call with the hospital who hadn't received my scan, but were again dismissive because of the site as it wasn't to the right. I told them to tell the writers of the NHS website who suggested it could ge central.

Eventually the scan was received, the diagnosis was accepted and I was given an urgent surgery referral, and given covid delays was seen quickly.

Even on the day of the surgery, the surgeon was saying, 'yes you've got gallstones but we don't think that's causing the pain, it's the wrong site.' Cue more eye rolling from me. Post surgery, he came back and said as a matter of course they count the stones. Most have about 4 or 5. They lost count at 200, and weren't surprised I was in pain. I felt totally vindicated.

I think if I wasn't a nurse and was able to be assertive I wouldn't be taken seriously.

I have found that they take one look at the fact that I previously took anti depressants and dismiss my problems as being anxiety related.

I have been back and forth to the GP over the last year or so coz I feel awful and one doctor (male i might add) just told me that i was probably just tired and stressed from having two children and needed to make more time for self care!

I have finally found one GP at the practice who has taken me seriously but I do get told a lot that I am too young for it to be anything serious!

YANBU. I haven't been back to see my GP in over a year, even though I need to. I was given a mumbled diagnosis last year and told I'd be referred to x, y and z, thank you and goodbye - went home and googled what they'd told me and had to find out at home, on my own, from the internet, that I have a rare brain tumour. I don't think I'll ever forgive or fully trust them after that.

My neurosurgeon is great and calls it what it is, as did the A&E doctor on the one occasion I ended up there recently, but I feel like I was totally failed by my GP that day and I'm now having counselling through a charity to process that.

I wish I could find the link now but I read a study once that around 50% of the time doctors had decided, before the appointment with the patient, that the symptoms were psychosomatic. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We have had really good experiences with out local GP practice - and short wait lists for minor things such as I had a call from GO about my cholesterol recently and she noticed my could was due for removal so she did a HRT consultation at the same time and I had a coils removal appt arranged by text 2 weeks later.

That is indeed the Conservatives' plan. It's not a secret.

we need to vote them out

“That’s the standard technique of privatisation: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”

Chomsky

I wish the Labour Party would be clearer in their messaging that the Conservatives have been working on this for 10 years and it's working exactly as they planned it. Those who can are going private. Those who can't, well who cares about them anyway? They all need to try harder and get better jobs and then they can have stuff like healthcare and a decent education for their kids.

I could believe that. They don't seem to want to investigate that something could be wrong, they want to dismiss it.

Them people feel so disheartened that they haven't been helped, they don't make a follow up, and suffer without medical care , which gives the bias that doctors were correct in their psychosomatic hypothesis.

I’ve been ill for the last 3 weeks. Finally have a phone conversation with a GP this morning, booked two weeks ago.

It’s a recurring health issue but I shouldn’t have to wait 2 weeks to speak to someone. I did use BUPA as we have it, but the doctor wouldn’t listen to me and prescribed anti anxiety meds with no discussion of how long I’d need them or side effects. I didn’t collect that prescription as I know it’s not flipping anxiety.

Plus my mums bowel symptoms were ignored by her GP now she’s terminal.