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

But this isn't the correct use of GPs very expensive time. Loneliness is not an illness although it can lead to MH issues. There should be more MH support that doesn't require a GP to access. Like a triage service for MH issues which would offer psychologists, counsellors, support groups for people suffering grief, eating disorders, loneliness, post natal depression, DV. These hubs would also offer social prescribing. It's the kind of thing councils and governments cut to 'save money' but costs more in the long run for GPs, police, social services, A&E etc.

Yeah but it’s like the boy who cried wolf. When 80% of your patients a time wasters, it’s not really a surprise that GPs fail to take things seriously.

In the old days, people would have to be extremely unwell to see a doctor.

They are trialling this actually. However, so far the AI is not doing brilliantly at it.

Problem is, the people with the most free time to have a day out at the doctors, the unemployed and retired, wouldn't have to pay.

Our AE told me the opposite-that because no one can get in to see their GP, people are literally dying at AE because people are forced to go there.
As for the fact people could go to their pharmacy, the problem with that is you can't book appointments for most things (at least at ours, only jabs etc get booked) so if lots of people just turn up, they'd be queued out the door, and most people can't do that. Yes, there's waits at a GP, but at least they have a list of who they're supposed to see that day, so emergencies aside, they know how many people are due in.
There's actually far fewer people seeing GPs in our area than say 20 years ago (desite many more people living here). First of all, there's far fewer surgeries, and none of the doctors are available full time, so in 2000, at all the then small surgeries, you'd have a couple of doctors seeing people all day, there's now only 3 big centres that they've all merged into, with only a couple of doctors at a time working at them (of course there might be some video appointments going on). A social media post shows there used to be literally dozens of GPs, who all did home visits and you could see them Mon-Fri for routine things. But none of them did private work then, they were all NHS, so that's another factor.
Most of you will agree a very positive change is emergency contraception needing a GP!

I pay my taxes to fund the NHS.

If I have a health concern, I expect that system to work for me.

I don't think that's true about 'the old days'. In the days when antibiotics were handed out for everything people were always at the doctors.
My own childhood (I'm in my 50s) I was taken to the doctor for the slightest sniff. My mother was a massive attention seeker though.

Yes, but the cost is prohibitive. Receptionists are paid peanuts.

Thing is, like obesity, loneliness takes real effort on the part of the patient to do something about. Nobody has to be lonely there are absolutely loads of free groups people can go to.

Same as my husband who went backwards and forwards to the GP for 6 months. He was diagnosed after going to A and E and being admitted. He died a month later.

We need to stop thinking of “going to the gp” healthcentres have a range of clinical people in them from healthcare assistants to physios, practice nurses, advance nurse practitioners, but so many people still demand to see a gp

I know but I meant colds. Not coughs from virus or bacteria. I guess people don't know which it is.

No they are not but they are trained to take and pass on messages to clinical staff who with the information provided can make a clinical decision.

It does sound like a very silly system! In my country long term meds are usually prescribed for about a year at a time, then to renew you just log into the health portal and click renew, a doctor reviews it within a couple of days and then you get a text telling you its renewed, then you can just go to any pharmacy, show your health insurance card and pick up your meds (which, unless something rare, they will have in stock so no need to order in advance, and no waiting ages for them to fiddle about dispensing them because they come pre-packaged).

And phone triage at GP clinics is done by nurses here, instead of non-medical professionals, so can feel pretty confident you're being triaged appropriately, and there are always same day appointments available for those that need them (but its not an exact time, its a time to turn up and wait)

I've visited a pharmacy many times for rather simple afflictions (a small child with thrush, antibiotics needed for infected eczema, a suspected UTI) and been told every single time I need to see the doctor which is then a hassle to get an appointment. Quite often I'm aware of whats wrong and what the treatment for it is but cannot access it without the prescription from the GP. Added in that there are no walk-in and sit and wait services in my area, its either a GP appointment or an A&E trip for most people so its no wonder both services are completely overwhelmed.

I've also been put on BP meds, it's set up on the GPs' system as a repeat prescription and I can request the repeat online. The GP OKs it (I assume it takes her less than a minute to do so) and it then goes automatically to my chosen chemist for dispensing. All done through https://www.patientaccess.com.

I believe the 28 days protocol came in to deal with the problem of people ending up with lots of expensive unused meds when they were given 6 months worth at a time. It also ensures the GP has to ask themselves every month (when they OK the repeat prescription) if the patient should still be on meds / should be getting a blood test this time e.g. to ensure BP meds aren't affecting kidneys / should be having a full medications review (my mother was on 15 different tablets at one point). I think it's quite a helpful protocol overall.

Except that doesn’t happen. My mum has been on omeprazol for years now and has never had bloods.

I don't know. My GP is always nagging me to book appointments more swiftly. 🙄

But on the other side of the coin,there's always going to be people who DO need a GP appointment who don't make one.

But that’s a problem with meds being dispensed in bulk rather than the initial prescribing. You give a 6/12 month prescription but only dispense every monthly and this eliminates the chance of drug waste.

So it takes the GP say one minute to click and approve a repeat. Say arbitrarily they need to do this 5 times a day. That’s 25 mins of time a week. Now if it’s a surgery like mine with 4 doctors that’s 100 mins of GPs time a week that could be better served by using a more sensible system

I do find it hard to judge with little children. Worried about whether I should borrow the GP over my child’s cough and wheezing or was I being silly over a preschooler’s cold. Called and they said they’d put me on the call list for the day. An hour or so later he was rushed into hospital in an ambulance and spent multiple days there because he deteriorated so fast. As I called the ambulance I was still worried about whether I was overreacting and wasting their time, but by the time they arrived he was floppy and struggling for every breath. The trouble is, people like me who hate wasting the NHS’s time and resources pick up on these messages and second guess our instincts.

The thing is that soon GP's will be further up the food chain, if AI keeps improving. I can see a time when you do a version of E-consult, it links to your notes and adds your symptoms and comes up with a few suggestions. Often it can do that already better than the GP. My B12 issue was obvious but the GP didn't want the practice to pay for the injections so did all the loading doses, then stopped when it crashed again refused to give me any more because the last bloods said it was high - after the loading doses! My new practice (after doing bloods and confirming it had gone back down through the floor since) said it is common because of the cost, so they asked if I am OK to pay and of course I am, I just want to be able to get out of bed every day FFS.

What really got me with it though was that I spent so much time and energy telling them what was wrong and they kept denying it - so yes I would have been down as a patient with no real cause. Being gaslit for a year certainly doesn't inspire trust. Anyone else who has these issues, vote with your feet. Move GP's, you can do it online with no need to explain why. Ask your friends where is good and go.

My best friends GP told her she had IBS. It was cancer. Again discovered when she took herself to A&E.

I am 20 year survivor of advanced bowel cancer who was fobbed off by every GP partner (bar one) in a large practice over the course of a year. At the time, appointments were easier to come by and I had at least 10, all with an actual GP, before being offered a referral for "health anxiety". My notes make me sound like some kind of Victorian "bluestocking" and contain more references to my marital status and my father's suicide than to my actual symptoms. No tests were ordered and the diagnosis dismissively offered by one GP (like the PP above) was IBS.

I now pop up on threads like this to remind people not to accept IBS as a diagnosis from a GP without further investigation, such as a colonoscopy. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion, not of "fuck knows and I can't be arsed to look properly". Unless you are willing to let the NHS play fast and loose with your health, all unexplained symptoms of bowel cancer (change in bowel habit, abdominal pain, bleeding, etc) should be investigated, especially if there is a family history, and you are NOT too young. (I was barely 30 with no family history).

Most people with these symptoms will not have bowel cancer, and I appreciate that GP's have to make difficult decisions about referrals when they may see multiple people with abdominal complaints that turn out to be self-limiting. However, that's a "them" problem and is presumably the reason why they are paid so handsomely.

Since then, I have recovered from cancer, sued the NHS for negligence and married a physician. One of those things, not sure which, seems to have stopped the standard GP routine of delays and fobbing off and I have received nothing but excellent service from my current GP practice.

If only everyone who could afford it would go privately to a GP. TBH that's what I do, every single time I need to which is about four times a year. I have a chronic illness but am fine, it just needs an eye kept on it. Before anyone pounces on me, yes I know I'm lucky I can afford it, but so can millions of others but they won't pay for private care at all.

I do have PHI and while it is a luxury, I feel fine for using it, as I feel it frees up another space in the NHS GP service for someone less fortunate. I get all my bloods, Ultrasounds, CT, MRI, cardiac checks and cancer screening privately also.

The care is no more professional than medics in the NHS, but it is better for me.

Everyone I know who visits a GP gets told there's nothing wrong with them, or it's anxiety, and it always turns out to be something serious.

So I have no doubt GPs think 80% of their patients are time wasters. But I bet they're wrong

I find GPs pretty crap in general - they know less than me about my health conditions. But I find consultants on the whole pretty good and knowledgeable about their area