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

The GP who continually fobbed off my dad with paracetamol for his stomach pain has similar views. It turned out my dad had pancreatic cancer and by the time his GP did anything, it was too late.

Til then, my dad been excellent health and hardly ever went to the GP.

I still have to see that smarmy GP's face. He's 80+ now and refuses to retire.

It’s scary how many people’s stories I’ve heard who are the exact same.
when I saw the private doctor he was bewildered that I hadn’t been referred but I think a huge thing was just he couldn’t see my notes so no “anxiety” prejudice. Instead he just looked at the symptoms in front of him.

I am so glad you are recovering well, we both went private, I often think about how long (if ever) it would have took the gp to stop saying anxiety and actually do something.

I used to have to have an appointment every 6 months to get HRT. I now submit my own blood pressure readings, order my prescription on an app and the pharmacy contact me when it’s ready to be collected. I recently wanted some blood tests, submitted an econsult, got a reply saying a form would be ready to collect. Booked my blood test appointment at my chosen date, time and venue and 2 days later all the results were on the nhs app. All without seeing a doctor and a brilliant service. Not everything these days needs a face to face doctors appointment but it will take time for some people to feel comfortable with that.

This response nails it. "Shouldn't be here" is meaningless without further context.

"Shouldn't be here" because thr patient booked a GP appt because they had the sniffles for one day (which to be fair means bad triage process and the surgery needs to fix it), or "shouldn't be here" after they had a reasonable worry and then a medical professional examined them and reassured them no further action?

Statistically it's highly unlikely that this 80% is entirely made up from the first category as above.

I know a young person whose symptoms were dismissed as "health anxiety" and it was suggested that they went on a wating list for counselling They had cancer, it killed them

Black spots in vision can be serious. I've just had PVD. TBF I went to the optician rather than GP. I waited because I didn't feel it was serious.

But can you not see that if every person who has a tummy bug or ate something that didn't agree with them is referred to a GP, to conduct all the tests that can be done in the surgery, and if they are also negative on to the hospital for scans and more invasive tests, it would be absolute chaos?

Most of the time if you have abdo pain and diarrhoea you need a day off work, a warm bath and some flat coke (or if you're feeling fancy rehydration tablets.)

Unless, as in my case, I'd spent 5 months begging for help from my GP, and I only went to A&E when I genuinely thought I was dying.

I was right to think there was something badly wrong. The GP was incorrect.

Having said that, I'd happily have paid £50 by that point, they could have had my house, I was so desperate for help.

To follow up my previous comment about the receptionists doing "triage" what I meant was just sorting patients to the correct medical person where possible.
So childhood vaccines, adult blood pressure check, ear syringing etc = make an appointment with the nurse.
Blood in your poo or lumps where there shouldn't be = make an appointment with the doctor.
I didn't mean any medical advice but just send you to the correct person.

Receptionists are not medically trained

There IS a gender pain gap. Women are expected to be in pain because of periods. Symptoms and pain are dismissed.

That is bizarre. I mean I wouldn't go to the doctor's unless I was in absolute agony and I knew they could prescribe something to ease the pain or I needed a specialist referral.

It seems peculiar to me that people would choose to go there if they don't need to. I guess colds that the patient wants antibiotics for might be a big one. But I'm struggling to imagine why it's so high.

💯

It astounds me how they dare to complain about how busy they are. Makes it hard to take them seriously.

People go to their GPs because they don't know where else to go. Our local NHS trust is working really hard to address this - trying to work with the voluntary sector to get help to people before things escalate, trying to get the message out to people about where else to look for support. It's not easy to get the message out to people but they are doing their best.

See the follow up comment I made just before yours.
I am not expecting them to be medically trained.

I think it goes both ways. I had a chronic condition and it took EIGHT YEARS to get a referral. I was told it was all down to my weight (entirely unrelated, btw, the consultant confirmed it). I had an op and it’s cleared. If someone had made that referral 8 years earlier it would have saved 10+ GP appointments a year with the same issue

First line treatment for a chronic cough is antibiotics. But a chronic cough could also be indicative of lung cancer or asthma - both fatal conditions.

It’s really a problem with life and human beings as much as with the medical and social service provided by GPs.

in the same way, it’s recognised in business that 80% marketing budgets completely wasted. The difficulty is knowing or working out the 20% which is effective.

Well I think there’s been a shift in general. When I was growing up it was generally accepted that you’d stay home and be ill for around 3 days before seeking gp ( ie if sickness/ear ache/sore throat/temperature type things) and treat symptoms at home.

now it’s as little Johnny gets a temp rush to take them down ( for an antibiotic prescription that doesn’t work)

I think we’ve shifted from a wait and see if it worsens culture to a demand based must fix now.

plus there are things that you could just go to. Pharmacy etc for and not need gp at all

Yet all those appointments are probably included in the 80% who ‘don’t need a GP appointment’….

If the patient just has a simple cold, how did they end up in a GP appt? Who triaged them?

The antibiotics thing has gone so far the other way where I have personal experience of quite obviously NEEDING them and the GP fobbing me off. I walked out of that appointment visibly upset, and I assume that this prompted her to rethink as she rang me and left a voicemail saying "on reflection" and "upon reviewing my notes" she changed her mind and a prescription for amoxicillin has been sent to the pharmacy. I predictably immediately started improving once on them. I will never forget how she refused to listen and how she clearly thought I was a mindless idiot demanding antibiotics just because of my stupidity - she even gave me a lecture on antibiotic resistance. Never mind I have a PhD on the thing but whatever, she had no reason to know that, I get it. I still see her name in my local surgery and immediately get the rage.

What else was I supposed to do?

I had chronic infections. Antibiotics needed every time, or I’d end up with fevers of 40°, in A&E. The pharmacy would always send me back to the GP because they couldn’t help, because it was a chronic condition. Maybe if GPs listened to their patients more, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Another whose parent was fobbed off for months before they realised they had terminal cancer. There’s a pretty huge chance according to the hospice doctor theta they could have been saved. The gp came to the funeral looking shook. I don’t blame him but it does make you think- putting your faith in this one person …

They shouldn’t be triaging though as they are not medically trained. I called about a headache that I had had for two weeks. The receptionist asked if I had tried painkillers… no the first thing I thought of was to call the GP and waste both our time! My blood pressure was high. I had pneumonia and the receptionist told me it was just a cold and to rest…I was hospitalised. I was told if I’d had antibiotics when I called the GP I would have avoided hospital. They should not be diagnosing people!

I now have a pain where my right ovary lives and would rather just accept it than see a Dr as no doubt I’ll be told it’s muscular or some other shit.

@Hiptothisjive my surgery used to offer several telephone appointments a week but for some reason even though they have same number of GPs still, they’ve removed that particular appointment type which I can’t get my head around. Many times I just need to describe something which there would be no visible symptoms for anyway so the phone appts were perfect, faster and more convenient for everyone.