My GP has told me that 80% of their appointments don't need a GP appointment.

[Hiptothisjive]

So I get that there are always people that need reassurance but this number shocked me. Basically a lot of people are visiting their GP for reasons they don't need to and taking up a lot of GP time.

It's great some of the prescriptions that can be given via a pharmacy now, but surely there needs to be a re-addressing of when to visit a doctor?

YABU - to expect people to know better than go to their GP when they don't need to
YANBU - people should go to the doctor whenever they want to no matter what the issue

We have similar. It's really really good and just proves that done right, things can be so much more productive.

100%.

What has surprised me is reading about GP practices that have recently switched to an online booking system, but it's only accessible in office hours. That's madness.

Sadly I agree. My OH must have been to his GP surgery dozens of times in the 2/3 years before they finally arranged a cancer pathway referral which diagnosed bone marrow cancer. He'd literally never been to his GP more than a handful of times in his 50+ years beforehand so was hardly down on their notes as a time waster. I'm sure the various/multiple GPs he saw over those 2/3 years regarded him as a time waster! Thankfully, one GP actually bothered to read his computer notes and listened to him describing his symptoms, (as he'd done numerous times before) and twigged what it may be and put him on the pathway for some special blood tests which showed his cancer. Funnily enough his GP surgery take him seriously now, but even so, he still has to remind them he has cancer as it clearly isn't highlighted on his notes as they act shocked when he tells them. I'd have thought something so serious should be flashing in huge letters on the "home" screen of his medical records, but apparently not!

I wouldn't trust any GP as far as I could throw them to believe them when they say the number of "time wasters" they think they have, as many of them could well be people with serious conditions that are being undiagnosed/misdiagnosed!

As for needing them for referrals, yes 100% a new way is needed. Just today, OH's oncologist has told him to ask his GP for a referral to physiotherapy for a painful leg that's stopping him from walking that's lasted over six months. Heaven knows why the oncologist can't do the referral themselves. OH has been on the phone all morning on and off to the GP surgery who are being awkward twats (both receptionists and triage) arguing that physiotherapy isn't the right thing and trying to fob him off back to the oncologist (who is impossible to contact until the next scheduled consultation in two months' time). The whole thing is sodding fiasco. He has the same when the oncologist wants OH to change or start taking various supplements or minerals etc - GP surgery just argue back saying not necessary leaving OH in limbo. The whole idea/ethos of GPs is outdated and we need a completely different system as it just doesn't work anymore. It worked once when GPs did everything, i.e. minor surgery, accidents, wound dressings, etc., but now they're basically office dwellers and don't get "hands on" we need a whole new way and to stop their role as gatekeepers as they're incapable.

Very similar experience here 🙄

It would be lovely it went back to the days of the local doctor living above the practice and everyone knew them. My neighbour was telling me how when he was young that he fell and cut his lip on a Sunday and his mum just took him to the doctor’s house and the doctor was gardening. He just got up and stitched the lip without quibble and went back to his gardening.

I also think that within the NHS, ‘time waster’ seems to mean ‘not cancer’. It’s beginning to feel like the NHS exists purely to screen for cancer. If your symptoms are checked on a two-week pathway and found to not be cancer, that’s as far as they go. They’re not interested in finding the actual cause and treating it. It’s just “You’re not going to die so bugger off and stop moaning”.

Lots of people are time-wasters. It'sworse at A&E though.

I was in A&E yesterday (seen within 5 minutes of checking in - so an actual emergency). When I finally left the person I came in with, about eight hours later when they had been admitted to the right ward and out of the resuss area, a mother and child who had been there since before I arrived were still there.

Child had an achy toe. 😡

We have a triage system that ensures people get seem by the right specialist - they are called GPs

I’ve noticed even just from reading Mumsnet that people are starting to lose the ability to think critically. It’s only getting worse with the rise of social media and AI etc. These are the people that can’t compute “I’ve got a headache, can I manage it myself or is it bad enough that I need to see someone?” It’s just automatic - “I’ve got a headache, someone needs to tell me what to do” and off they trot to A&E or the GP.

It’s awful because it means genuine cases can’t get in and GPs and A&E Doctors get short tempered and maybe miss genuine cases because they have seen so many knobheads.

I defend medical negligence cases. Your friend’s attitude cross up a lot in the cases I see.

Too ready to dismiss, too ready to underplay symptoms. Too ready to think that rare means never

No idea. But i tried to get a pharmacist to check my ear the other day, to see if just wax or an infection as I was a bit deaf. They refused as apparently they can only check 2-17 years olds for ear infections. Told me to ring 111 instead. What a waste of time.

No I'm not and the one at my doctor's surgery is incredibly rude and condescending so I'm not a massive fan of them, but if there weren't so many people going to the doctor every time they feel a little queasy then they might trust me to know that on the rare occasions I do call I probably have a good reason.

I actually have a complex health issue and my doctor immediately asks me to come in if I contact them, even if I think it could be easily dealt with by a telephone call or a nurse, but my DD is mostly healthy and trying to get medical care for her can take longer.

I've found that the best option is to start with a charity helpline, like ERIC or the Asthma and Lung Charity, and they can help you assess if a doctor is needed and provide you with reassurance. They have a lot more time.

Yes I do have a chronic condition, but when I have new and alarming symptoms, and my consultant agrees it is nothing to do with my chronic condition, what an I supposed to do? I go to see my GP.

My GP, says "what do you expect me to do, you have a diagnosis"

I say... but consultant says this is nothing to do with my conditon

GP smiles patronizingly and writes "patient has anxiety"

Symptoms get worse so I go back again to GP.

GP says, "I see you have been diagnosed with anxiety" and smiles patronizingly..

Repeat..

FFS

They can't even diagnose cancer properly either, as my DH found out after dozens of appointments over 2/3 years. I think they've developed an attitude that everyone is a time waster, so can't even be bothered to listen and think about symptoms anymore. Presumably hoping that a different GP next time may make more of an effort!

100000% this

Hilarious if you seriously believe that the current system works like that for most patients!

The A&E issue arises because GPs won’t see people and leave them to get worse until they feel that it’s their only option. Yes you get some egregious cases like you’ve mentioned but you also get a lot of poorly people who have nowhere else to go.

I'm under a hospital more than 2 hours away by public transport for a very rare condition. My NHS trust does not employ any consultants in this speciality.

In order for my bloods to be done vaguely near my house (at my own doctors surgery) rather than me needing an entire day trip, and for these results be added to my nhs record so my consultant can see them, requires me to book (and waste) an entire GP appointment.

(Most of my appointments with the consultant are over the telephone so it's not like I am there anyway)

GPs don't see people because they are time wasters. If someone is that poorly they can call 111, or 999, or even go to a pharmacist or even go to a GP. If a GP isn't seeing you, there's usually a reason - more urgent cases.

GPs and A&E should only see people who are actually ill. Not someone with a sniffle, or an achy finger.

So true, my DH could have written that. It's classic NHS "fob off" mentality. My husband is regularly pinged between his oncologist and GP surgery, neither of whom are remotely interested in dealing with all the side effects and other conditions related to his cancer. Oncologist only cares about a specific blood test marker. GP regards literally everything as being "due to cancer" so fobs him off back to the oncologist. It's horrendous.

I agree.

Surely at that point she was one of the most housebound ill patients.

I had the same. Too unwell to safely leave the house, couldn't walk straight, struggled to even use the phone, dismissed by receptionist. When I was well enough to read NHS advise it was call an ambulance 🙄. Chronic condition still ongoing and medicated 30 years later. Faster diagnosis and treatment could have improved outcome.

I hear you all, I do. But how many of those "time wasters" have a serious medical condition? We don't know and the attitude endanger public health.

I knew someone who would take her child to the Dr for every single illness. Every cold, every temperature etc. She would panic at him being even slightly unwell and didn't trust her judgement. I very gently suggested care at home was all that was needed, calpol and cuddles. But she'd go to the gp anyway. It baffled me.

My gp has an econsult and it works wonders. My non urgent appointment was given to me the same day I enquired a few weeks away. When my daughters finger swelled up dramatically they called back in ten minutes and had antibiotics ready right away despite it being half an hour before closing.

And lots of people, like my MIL, end up in A&E as their condition worsens because the GPs couldn't be arsed to diagnose and provide proper treatments.

Just a day before my MIL was blue lighted to hospital with double pneumonia, we took her to the GP, who listened to her chest and decreed it was clear and there was no need for antibiotics nor other treatment for her very obvious severe chest pains and breathing/coughing problems. In A&E they immediately put her on an AB drip after checking her chest and confirming it was completely blocked in both lungs! No way on Earth was her chest clear the day before!

Its just another way to blame the general public for the failings within the nhs. If doctors actually listened first time a lot of appointments could be avoided.