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

I had to see a PA for my asthma review last year. I didn't know this until I'd turned up. She wanted to change my medication slightly. Fine. Except when I got the prescription it was wrong and I was left with no reliever inhaler. If I'd seen a nurse they could have changed it there and then

I’d argue they’re not trained to triage effectively. They’re not medically trained and have no business triaging. Receptionists, in my experience, are the high-failure rate of being directed elsewhere or dismissed due to their own misunderstanding.

I had this too for my child. Phone Dr’s gave DC an appointment with specialist nurse who couldn’t find the issue and put DC on a waiting list for an operation that they didn’t need.

I paid for a consultation with a consultant paediatrician who identified the issue was fine and no treatment needed. A few months later DC did get a Dr appointment for something else but the DR had to check the first issue and could tell straight away it was a benign issue.

Point is the DR would have realised there was no problem whereas the specialist nurse didn’t know. Had I not been able to afford the £120 for the consultation we would have ended up waiting 6 months to see the NHS consultant about an operation that was never needed and within 2 minutes the consultant would have also found the non issue and be scratching their head how the issue wasn’t found by the GP surgery. Waste of everyone’s time and money!

How, though? We can’t all just self refer.

I saw at least 20 different GPs over the course of about 15 years. All with the same issue. They all were dismissive. They all probably thought I was wasting their time.

Finally a switched on optician spotted the clue (which with hindsight should have been obvious to a well trained GP)- my droopy eyelid. I have Myasthenia Gravis.

So unless those GPs later go back and check all those "time wasting patients" notes to see what they missed, they may well be misplaced in their disdain for their patients.

Really interesting to hear all of the unique and personal stories and I am so sorry for anyone who has been 'fobbed' off and it was actually something serious.

I think I am referring more to having a cold and 'needing' an appointment. Those who DEMAND antibiotics for a cold when they won't work or aren't needed. For those who have a cough and need to see a doctor only after a few days etc.

It also refers to those who 'need' to see a doctor after a few days rather than seeing how it goes.

I agree. We get triage via an online form now and then the GP contacts you and gives you a face to face appointment if necessary. I think previously a lot of people wasted a lot of GP time.

I don't think the OP was talking about time wasters, more people who go to the doctor's honestly not realising their symptoms are trivial. Sometimes called 'the worried well', instead of taking a couple of paracetamol and feeling fine an hour later they go to the doctor. I don't know if people just no longer trust their own judgement or just automatically think I'll ask the doctor to be on the safe side, but it swamps a lot of appointments. Of course once in a long while a trivial symptom isn't trivial and those cases make headlines, reinforcing the I'll just go to the doctor. And any type of triage system to sort the more serious from the trivial meets resistance because people want to see The Doctor.

I was also told that out of a practice list of eg 5,000 the GPs would only see 5% of those patients - and mostly the same patients all the time.

Not surprised. People don’t make enough use of pharmacists as a first step.

This is not my experience. Our receptionists have a list of things the various types of practice nurses deal with. They will suggest it, which means you can be seen quicker, but if you prefer you can still see a doctor. You can also say you’d rather not tell the receptionist and that’s fine too.

I’d much rather a system where doctors aren’t tied up with things nurses can deal with, which may mean sometimes you need to have another appointment with a doctor, than one where GP appointments are even harder to get.

You don't have an app to do all this?

I've not called a receptionist in 5 years

I can see the day coming when we'll have our own personal Chat GP (t) robot.

Who will be kind and courteous at all times. Will welcome you to the virtual surgery. Will ask for your history and your issue. Will look at photos of your lump, bump, rash, sore throat. Will look at the temperature you take at home, together with the blood pressure reading. Will look at you sitting, standing, at your face, eyes to see if you look pale or yellow. You will check your ears with a video enabled wand. Will listen to your heart/chest via your own equipment. You will instantly send a Kardia mobile type 12 lead ECG direct to the Chat GP. And so on.

All from the comfort of your own home.

Then Chat GP will refer you on to consultant, xray, MRI, U/S, blood test, scan whatever.

At the moment a lot is done remotely by GP anyway. Few reasons for the majority of ailments to be seen face to face anymore.

Any GPs/docs around to rubbish my predictions!

The worried well! I’m going to start using that term, it perfectly sums it up 😂

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

I do agree though that there are times when pharmacists should be deployed more. Pharmacist and optician all agree I have blocked tear duct and infection... but I had to go into to get a prescription for antibiotics. At least it was a nurse practitioner rather than a GP.

You’re absolutely right. I’m so sorry to hear about your mum x

Same my GP operates like this and it’s reasonably easy to get an appointment which suggests that the system works, ie they’re not wasting lots of appointments on people who don’t need them.

Our GP surgery wouldn’t give you an appointment if you didn’t need one. You have to be triaged first and only those close to death would be granted an appointment this side of the next Olympics.

I expect my parents GP would have said the same thing about both of them. Dad had 4 GP appointments over 1 year and was diagnosed with cancer via an A&E admission by ambulance from home.

My mum visited the same GP 3 times in the course of a few months and was also diagnosed through an A&E admission that I insisted upon and took her to.

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

My own GP rolled his eyes at me on my 3rd visit to him (for the same symptoms, I knew what was wrong with me and told him this) during which I insisted on a blood test which showed a chronic autoimmune condition. He ate some humble pie on the phone when he called me to tell me the result 'you were right', well, yes I knew that. Idiot.

I don't have too much faith in them now, unfortunately.

A GP friend of mine told me that on hot sunny days the number of patients who dont turn up or cancel appointments rises dramatically. She said they know it will be quiet in surgery when the weather is nice!
I only make GP appointments when I absolutely need one so what the weather is doing would be irrelevant, however it would seem there is a significant number of people who make appointments that even they know are not needed or urgent as if the sun is shining they sack them off!
Also the people suggesting patients should self refer for consultant appointments - what?!?! Can you imagine if the general public could just decide they need a consultant without the GP gatekeeping? It would be absolute chaos with total timewasters booking consultant appointments left, right and centre.
I think a PP has already said it, when people receive something for free they perceive it has no value so abuse it with abandon.

How can it be 'reasonable ' to agree to people wasting a GP's time?
The onus is on the GP practice to ensure patients know what they can do without needing to see one of them.

Every single time I’ve been to a pharmacist, they tell me they don’t know and I should see the GP. Or they do know, but I would be better to see a GP for certain.

My daughter had a rash that flared up badly whilst we were on holiday in England. It was clearly a dermatology issue, one she’d had frequently, easily spotted and treated with a fairly low power steroid cream. We told the pharmacist about the history and what she had been treated with. Pharmacist said they couldn’t prescribe that.

I think that a GP who goes into every appointment thinking that there's only a 20% chance of it being worth their time is a GP who's potentially going to be missing anything that isn't blindingly obvious.

My GP has never said anything like that to me. He'd rather people came for the stuff that turns out not to matter than didn't come for the stuff that does.

I think you have predicted the future for sure! It’s the way everything else is going and with the more advances in technology, you’re almost certainly right.

We have an app for a lot of things, but it doesn’t let you make appointments. Very annoying!