GP surgeries are broken

[grumpyandfedup]

Put in an e consult to my GPs surgery this morning for suspected anaemia or hypothyroidism. Okay not life threatening but unpleasant to live with and impacting my mental health and day to day life.

I get a text three hours later to say this isn’t urgent and I’m on a list to be called NEXT YEAR! The date isn’t certain and can be subject to change, but I should expect a call in the week commencing 5th January.

In the meantime my life will get worse, I’ll feel worse and I can’t get any help. Yet an immigrant arriving on a boat has onsite GPs there ready and waiting at all hours of the day.

Next year is just over three weeks away and you’ve got Christmas in the middle where the surgery will be closed. So saying GP surgeries are broken based on this is a bit of an overreaction.

Yes it isn’t nice and it is important to you and does need seeing to but it is not life threatening. Get some iron spray/haemoglobin in the meantime. Ring up if you feel worse.

Not sure what your point about immigrants is. I’m pretty sure GP’s do not have a special shortcut list for ‘immigrants’ that makes them get seen any quicker

Not at this surgery. They don’t seem to give a shit about anyone down there

That’s not my experience.

I phoned. Got a call back from a GP and I’ve a face to face appointment this afternoon.

I’ve had over the phone appointments and tests ordered too, in the past.

Move surgery then

What’s the relevance of immigrants again, op? Can you explain?

You lost me as soon as you started ranting about immigrants.

This woman is making up scenarios and processes that don’t exist. She’s clearly upset she can’t get an appointment but no amount of rationale or explanation is going to help. She would have had a lot more productive and sympathetic responses even, if she didn’t add in a sprinkle of racism at the end of the OP. She was given a good tip from you and the response was to come back with some false narrative as a come back because she simply cannot accept she’s being U.

!00% Being seen next year is nu for non urgent. If it was early november and you were told this then that would be understandable, but it's about 3 weeks away hardly a life time.
If it's causing you so many problems may be you should go sick, otherwise go private or like everyone else realise it's the busiest time of the year with christmas and flu season and you are on the list for a call but need to wait unless it became life threatening.

I think you might be better discussing your mental health with them OP and I mean that kindly, as you sound quite depressed.

But with regards to not being able to get an appointment, you've only been at work 2 hours and you've spend 40 minutes on this thread, and you have a lunchbreak later.

Surely during all that time you can sit on hold to the surgery?

A good proportion of the GPs at my practice are immigrants and couldn't be nicer.

Coming over here, healing our sick. How dare they.

Wow, you're getting a hard time on this thread OP, and I don't think you're wrong to be frustrated. I think you need to go back to the GP surgery, even if it means doing another form. Let's face it the first thing the GP is going to do is order bloods and there is no reason they can't at least request them without seeing you

Could you perhaps buy yourself an at-home fingerprick blood test from, for example, Medichecks?

I have long since abandoned the GP and I organise all my own blood tests privately, through Medichecks and other such organisations.

I like to monitor my liver health, kidney health, cholesterol levels, B12, vitamin D, ferritin, Hba1c etc so I take blood tests annually.

I agree, OP, not with your immigrant bashing, but your dissatisfaction with the NHS. They don't know in other countries people can see a GP almost immediately, certainly the same day or next day and get blood tests taken on the spot. They think it's normal to wait nearly a month for a phone conversation (which is not enough to check for anaemia anyway) and then another two weeks for a blood test.

It delays everything, people get sick when they are anaemic, then clog up the system more.

It's basic stuff, if you don't care for the little things, the larger things (which depend on little things, that aren't critical at that moment, that cause chronic ill health, time off work, raise susceptibility of other viruses and diseases) get worse and the system creaks even further.

Sounds fine to me - as you say, it’s not urgent.

OP, we are in the middle of a flu epidemic. We have thousands of toddlers with high fevers. The 5th Jan is only three weeks away, and your issue is not urgent. GP surgeries will be closed for a week of that time. Doctors are allowed time with their families too.

Stop being a drama queen. You do not have a fever, an infection, a broken bone, a suspicious lump. You are not bleeding. It is not screamingly urgent. Rest, relax and Jan 5th will come soon enough.

Thing is, even if you stay on hold, you will be told it's not an urgent matter! It's not time-critical, is it? So why should we pretend it is, just to be seen in a short amount of time?

I use private GPs for all obvious things now, and would self-medicate with strong iron til then or get blood tests privately. The system is utterly broken and I rely on it for very little as they make you feel bad for even thinking about using it!

GP surgeries are broken

Not all. Mine are brilliant, and they serve a huge area.

Exactly that. I give up. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sounds like you'd be better off registering with a new practice, you clearly have no faith in them and it seems like the patient/GP relationship has broken down.
I work in a GP practice and can assure you asylum seekers have to follow the same process as all other patients.

My optician spotted a potential health issue in January and referred me to my GP. I had difficulties getting an appointment, then a lengthy wait to have a blood test, then a lengthy wait for a further appointment as the results were inconclusive but I still have the same symptoms.

The GP referred me to a specialist at the hospital in August but I'm still on the waiting list and nobody can tell me when I will get an appointment.

Almost a year gone and I'm still waiting.

There are 11 working days left of the year so yabu to dramatise this as though you are waiting a year. There are things you can do to help yourself eg before i was diagnosed anemic and low b12 as I already suspected this I took over the counter supplements

People with anaemia are more likely to get flu severely and with worse complications.

These things are interactive.

In the current NHS it 'makes sense' to ignore anaemia.

In a functionining health-care system, you would want to correct this quickly and without involving much medical expertise unless there was something alarming about it.

What's the point of GP as a 'first port of call' if they are not a first port of call. This is not an emergency, so GP is the correct choice of professional to contact!

@grumpyandfedup , next year is less than a month away; I think we need to accept at the moment that waiting a month for a non urgent appointment is par for the course. I assume it is you who suspects anaemia or hypothyroidism but it will have been a doctor who triaged your request and they have used their clinical judgment and assessed that it is not urgent that you are seen. Other people will have more pressing and urgent need of their attention, why should they see you instead of someone whose condition requires their immediate attention?
If you really can’t wait go and see a private GP. Going forward I suggest you manage your expectations.
I agree with you that it doesn’t seem fair that those who have effectively broken into our country have access to same day GP appointments but you are conflating two separate issues.

You might find your apparent need to compartmentalise somewhat limits your capacity for comprehension