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

Bloody hell, if the NHS had it's way we'd all die just nice and quietly in our homes and not bother them at all, for anything, ever.

Doing their job seeing patients must be such a terrible burden for them. Don't go to A&E unless you're literally about to expire, but also don't go to your GP either because they'll probably deem you to be a malingerer. Soon it'll be don't go to the chemist because you don't feel well, they're too busy to deal with customers.

Until they turn up at A&E either with a much more serious condition that should have been picked up earlier, or to avoid the cost of seeing a GP.

Doctors would always rather see a child than not. In the GP surgery or in A&E.

the 80% will mostly be adults who are lonely or alone. Young and old.

Perhaps we need better triage services for them via nurses.

the online booking system at my GP is beyond me tho. So I have no idea how less technically savvy people get an appointment!!!

No, receptionists shouldn’t be used as minimum wage triage - they are not qualified to do that job. The “training” they get is barely tick box worthy and its entirely unfair to expect them to do triage. Its not an accident that so many negative comments on here related to the misuse of receptionists as medical triage.

My practice also triage patients before allocating appointments. A GP or occasionally their lead NP (who is very experienced and excellent) does the triaging. They find it an effective use of qualified time which also better serves their patients.

I suspect any GP who dismisses 80% of their patients as time wasters is a lousy GP. If on the other hand the point is that many appointments are an unnecessary waste of their and their patients’ time but are required by the bureaucracy to access the next gate then I have a lot of sympathy with them. Ditto the frequency of repeat prescriptions for life time or long term drugs which used to be prescribed for much longer intervals.

There's a lot of people with "health anxiety" about them or their children. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of those appointments are taken up by a small number of repeat offenders.

Every ache and pain is arthritis, bone cancer, blood clots and certain death, every sniffle is monkey pox or ebola. I suppose it's better than rushing to A & E every time you pull a muscle.

I can see the appeal- as in some countries- of charging a nominal fee, like £15 an appointment, but I can also see that this would lead to people not going when in fact there really is a serious issue, which would end up costing a lot of money in the long run when it turns into an urgent serious issue.

I genuinely wonder what GPs think they are there for these days.

Of course there are time wasters, there always have been, but if people have a symptom that is worrying them or making them feel unwell why shouldn't they see a doctor?

I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. For my annual medication review I have to take my take my own blood pressure and then get a phone call once a year from some doctor I've never met. Is it really too much to expect to see a doctor once a year, especially to discuss being prescribed a new drug (as happened this year)?

If we had a properly functioning GP service, such as we had 20 or 30 years ago the NHS as a whole would be greatly improved.

And I have demanded antibiotics! Literally had to do a sit in and say I am NOT leaving this room without antibiotics.

Strep throat which kept coming back clean on the swabs. Finally someone rings me up something like 2 months later and says omg you need to get antibiotics. Strep b is really bad.

It’s like I know! I have been dealing with this on and off for 2 months straight. Thankfully the docs just gave in each time and kept me going with short courses and reswabbing until it finally showed up on test.

Culminated in me doing quite a big feet stamp at the end. Managed to get 10 day course for me and 7 day for everyone in the family (including toddler) as I am sure we had a carrier. And they said yes!

Finally no issues since 😅

My GP calls it "SLS" (shit life syndrome)
Not much can be done for some people, sadly.
Years of poor mh, poor physical health, abusive relationships, substance abuse etc
Social prescribing was supposed to help people, but its pretty patchy and - again - whilst I admire the sentiment - how do you get a 70 year old man with uncontrolled diabetes and a partial amputation to go to an allotment!?
Lots of elderly people are very lonely (like my mum) but that suggestion - and the suggestion they can do something about it - is usually met with either denial or anger.

I would be very interested in knowing what exactly they have decided doesn't need a doctor.

And if they're right, then we done ally need many doctors at surgeries do we?

I'm cynical because I was fobbed off numerous times at the surgery, by doctors and then when they decided I should see a nurse practitioner instead, by the NP.

I became a pain in the arse, and eventually got a.blood test.

Turned out I had ovarian cancer.

So I'm rather dubious when medical professionals say anything like this.

No but they are trained to triage the patient to the correct department (ie doctor vs nurse)

My GP told me to stop wasting his time when I presented with an infection. I ended up in critical care for 10 days with Sepsis

I suppose my first thought when I see "headlines" like this, is that the government are about to announce more cuts or closing local gp practices for super hubs 🤷
call me a cynic

I don't know to be honest 🙁

Why? High blood pressure is very common. There's nothing they'd be able to see that you can't see on your home blood pressure monitor and they can explain to you how to use the medication on the phone. Why do you want to see them?

If you have a symptom that's worrying you then you need to think about if it's actually worrying and what you can do to help yourself. Most minor ailments can be easily treated at home and will go away with time.

Having said that, I spent 5 months going to a male GP who insisted I was imagining my pain or that it was IBS. In the end, he told me I was 'a woman of a certain age seeking attention'. I was 34 😡

A week later I collapsed in A&E and was admitted with a raging abdo infection, sores all up my back and a twisted ovarian dermoid, the size of a grapefruit. I lost an ovary and tube (and the dermoid), had a 5 hour op, a hip to hip scar, 7 days in women's surgical and 6 weeks off work.

I tried to get help, I don't normally make a fuss, am generally healthy but I knew there was something badly wrong, he just wouldn't listen.

Sometimes you just can't win.

In that case they would give you a doctor appointment.

I wonder how they've got this data tbh. There's plenty of stories out there of cancer being missed by GPs, genuine health issues misdiagnosed as anxiety etc. Do they count as unnecessary appointments?

Same here
my cancer was not anxiety
or menopause
or just because I needed to lose some weight
it would have helped if the first 5 appointment with my GP hadn’t each been with a different person and telephone only

I paid to go privately
Cancer found and removed and am slowly recovering

Not been to the doctor for 7 years, would not even know how to go about getting an appointment these days. Dreading the day that I might need to see a GP as I hear how tough it is to even get through to the health centre by phone or online let alone to actually be spoken to or seen

No one expects that 🤷

Mine was a waste, was told I shouldn’t be at the GP surgery but in A&E already and he phoned an ambulance 😬

That would just mean that people who can afford the tenner would be at the doctor’s twice a week and people who can’t afford it would be seriously ill before they saw a doctor.

wow I’m shocked. I mean there are never appointments. I’ve been trying to get one for 10 weeks! And to hear 80% are not needed? Then why isn’t there a better process?
there will always be a percentage cos people don’t always know when it’s necessary, but 80% is ludicrous

If you got rid of all the appointments for viral infections, which should only warrant a visit if symptoms are getting worse after 1 week or no better after 3 weeks, and that includes children, that will be a good percentage off.

Same with sprains, muscle or joint pains, back pain.

Add mild stress and anxiety, black spots in vision, eye twitching, spots, bites, low fever etc....that are not worrisome unless these go on for weeks, that's another good percentage off the books.

I do find that parents seem to be quite dramatic quickly. A temperature of 39 and they are very worried, when it's not in itself. Saying g that I totally agree that this behaviour is encouraged by social media and website, and 111 are also alarmist as they are so scared, understandably, that a dismissal could turn into something serious, however unlikely it is.

Starting with people accepting that antibiotics should NOT be prescribed for a simple viral infection would be a very good start to reducing wastage.

£50 to be paid at A+E if you haven't been referred by primary care.