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

Most of my appointments have been to see a nurse and I'm happy with that. I think there are some people who insist on seeing a GP when it's not necessary though.

With my last appointment for a dressing change, the nurse called in the GP who sent me urgently to hospital. I've been here for 10 days now and will be here for another week. I think it's a good system.

Well I was probably included in that 80% of time wasters as I went to the GP numerous times with agonising pelvic pain. One insinuated I had health anxiety.

One day I took myself to A&E and was on an operating table a couple of hours later. I had a huge ruptured dermoid cyst.

My ex is a GP and I used to hear about a lot of misconducts that would go on.

Most people would rather not take time off work to book a gp appointment unless necessary.

Sounds believable to me. I think we have an incredibly anxiety prone society now. I would imagine it’s often the same people who go again and again too.

My GP practice will now only prescribe, even LIFELONG medication like thyroxine (I have no thyroid gland), every two months. Such a waste of time and money.

My GP told me it was new NHS practice to not give prescriptions for more than two months

This might be stating the obvious, but how can non-medical people be expected to diagnose whether what's wrong with them needs a GP appointment?

Maybe they need to get better with their triage system. Appointments are made online with my GP and the form includes lots of questions that cover all the symptoms and history. It covers anything that would be said in an appointment so they should be able to use that to decide if a GP appointment is needed or if the person needs to be signposted elsewhere. If a medical professional can't appropriately triage and say if a GP appointment is needed how can we expect the general public to know if one is needed?

DH went to the GP about 10 times before one referred him for a scan where he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was told more than once that 'we all get a bit tired sometimes' and he should get over it. Not one GP thought it was unusual for a gym going healthy young man to feel extremely tired which was one of his symptoms.

Did they mean don't need to go through a GP at all or just don't actually need to speak to one/go into the surgery? I had a problem with an infected toe nail last year - I filled out the form, sent a photo and an hour later got an email to say a prescription had gone to the pharmacy, same when my youngest got conjunctivitis (below the she you can get it otc)... form, photo, email saying prescription with pharmacy. I didn't need to see/speak to a GP but I did need them to do something iyswim.

My daughter had sudden sensorineural hearing loss in one ear and when I googled it everything said "this is an emergency go to A&E immediately". We went and the triage nurse said we didn't need to be there, but she grudgingly let us see the doctor.

The doctor said it was absolutely the right thing to go there, she got the needed immediate steroids and she got her hearing back. What if we'd been fobbed off by that triage nurse? Triage doesn't always get things right. We could have taken days getting a GP appointment.

I get a six month prescription which the pharmacist holds. I do have to collect them every month but since it is just down the road it isn’t an issue. At the end of 6 months I get a phone medication review, usually from a pharmacist attached to the practice. Twice a year seems reasonable to me. Sometimes I am asked to do a blood test, forms are left at the reception and again a phone call is offered for results.

This ⬆️. Exactly.
My GP practice has a triage system to work out priorities. Last time my GP rang me at an agreed time, a couple of days later. That was all that was needed.

I agree! Bring it on!

I get called into the gp when i'm just after a referral, a waste of both our time

Unpopular opinion but this is why most countries, even ones with universal healthcare like France and Portugal, have some form of copay for appointments.

If an appointment costs £30 then 80% of people with a rash or hurty finger will go to the pharmacist first.

Well I expect a certain percentage don’t need a GP just like a percentage don’t need to go to A and E or call an ambulance. How to sift those struggling with health anxiety or time wasters from the genuine people who do need medical attention is the hard part. 80% seems high but yes if they are needed just for a referral then you could argue they do need an appointment as the system is set up so everything goes through the GP. If 80% are going just because they have a virus then that should be addressed. I would like to see them charging for missed appointments too.

But the rash or hurty finger should have been sorted out by the triage system, surely?

Yes - I have injections every 4 weeks and I can't book them in because it only does 2 weeks at a time, so it is on me to remember and re-call in and book.
New online system takes you through about 10 questions then asks something ridiculous at the end like "how long have you had this pain for" and if you say a month it wipes ALL of your answers and tells you to dial 111!

This.

At doctors I was told all my symptoms were anxiety and basically pushed back onto anxiety meds. Turns out it was thyroid.

After surgery I was told by nurses that I must have anxiety when I said things weren’t right. Luckily the consultant took me more seriously and I was rushed back to surgery with internal bleeding. Next day another nurse told me again it seems like I have a lot of anxiety about how my recovery is going. Is that a surprise after all that 😅

Obviously Doctors and NHS staff generally do a brilliant job and a difficult one but I do think if more time was spent taking patients seriously then it would improve things.

Time-wasters, piss-takers and some GPs that don't take you seriously. A toxic mix if I don't say so myself. There is no common sense anymore.

I unfortunately also know of a case of someone's concerns being dismissed. They died of cancer three months later.

On a much more minor note, I was recently made to feel like an idiotic time waster by the receptionist and had to practically beg for an appointment. They grudgingly gave me a nurse's appointment three weeks later. Luckily the nurse was fantastic and said I definitely needed prescribed treatment for an issue that can turn in to cancer if left untreated. I had gone to the pharmacist first who told me a load of rubbish and prescribed a totally useless medicine! The nurse was, like, "why did they give you that?!" when I told her. I don't trust the pharmacist now, it's the second time they've totally misdiagnosed me.

I understand why it might be comforting to believe that receptionists are trained to triage patients but they aren’t. They would need a basic understanding of all illnesses and how patients might describe symptoms as non medical professionals. They would then need to know how illnesses should be treated.

In my experience some don’t even understand basic terminology or anatomy so you have to explain what is wrong as though you are talking to a child. Even then if they don’t really understand they make decisions anyway which delays getting the correct help and, what seems to be more important now, it wastes NHS money.

If there are patients who are wasting NHS time a GP is best qualified to recognise and address that. They might also, if proactive, might get the patient the psychological treatment they need. Anyone who wants to spend time unnecessarily in our filthy surgeries taking to our tired and burnt out NHS staff really do need help

A friend of mine had been saying for months her ds wasn’t walking right. She was told she was fine. She took her DD for an appointment her ds was about 18 months so took him with her. Dr said straight away he wasn’t walking right. He referred him to a specialist even though it was his siblings appointment. He had clicky hips he was lucky he never had long term damage.

I agree the new e consult system has transformed our surgery, we get appts quickly when we need them and if we need something minor we are texted and a prescription is sent to the pharmacy.

I was coughing up blood in the end, so yeah, I did need antibiotics
I have long covid which has badly affected my left lung, sadly.
Sinusitis...again, a temp of 40+ indicates a bacterial infection.
Believe me, I'd rather not take ABs, but sometimes they are necessary (and I can member dieing covid drs throwing antibiotics at people over a phone call...)

My daughter saw our local GP three times who dismissed her each time telling her just to put weight on. When she moved to Uni still unwell and lethargic and went to her Uni GP she was rushed to hospital for suspected blood cancer and ended up diagnosed with a autoimmune disease for which she is now on medication for life. I also had a missed condition and a missed fracture. How many stories do we read about being diagnosed with cancers until it’s too late etc. The GP sounds arrogant and dismissive of flaws in the system.