That my GP is rubbish..

[nondrinker1985]

There have been several things over the years where I’ve had to push back… my mum was visiting this week and couldn’t believe the incompetence of our GP practice.

I should say my mum doesn’t have a formal education but she can read and write (emigrated here from
a third world country) so her biggest concern was around if this was her in my shoes she would not have known to push back.

point 1 - discussing HRT. GP acknowledges I am on mirena so I need oestrogen only, I collect my prescription - they have prescribed me a combined patch from google - Estradot Conti (often referred to in the context of combined, continuous patches) is a transdermal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patch designed for postmenopausal women with an intact uterus. It combines estrogen (estradiol) and progestogen (norethisterone acetate)

I then have to push back and say hang I’m not post
menopausal etc (via their online form) and I don’t need this medicine - I get a text saying

‘we have changed your prescription to oestrogen only as you have progesterone form mirena.

Thanks, Dr HG’

note not even apologising for the wasted dispensed medicine or the fact I had to tell them they’ve give the wrong thing.

second my DD is having heavy periods - they say she has low vit D. I ask for a print out of her blood tests, it’s clear to me she is also borderline on ferritin (22 cut off is 20) and is using her iron stores so she is heading towards anaemia - once again I push back and this time I get an appointment over phone and GP agrees and prescribes iron.

should we consider a new GP this is just two examples this isn’t even the worse and this is this week. I mean there have been example of extreme incompetence not just in prescriptions but referrals sent incorrectly - resulting in months of wasted time. So much wasted admin by the NHS.

They used to be so good until some of the older GPs retired the two current partners are just terrible. Easy stuff they’re ok with but anything else it’s awful

I'd like to think you'd get something better if you change GP, but you won't.

A ferritin cut off of 20 is high Vs much of the country, which is 12. Yet speak to any woman with a level under 20 ISH and they are lethargic and depressed. I just supplement with ferrous fumarate when I feel low iron coming on.

Sorry

But it’s the overall clinical context. I’ve had months wasted over incorrect referrals too.

I can’t believe all surgeries are so incompetent. And the fact I was prescribed the wrong HRT?!

I deal with GPs a lot professionally and some are definitely better than others. And it's mostly area-dependent, for some reason. There is one particular county where GPs seem particularly...bad... and every time I see a referral from there my heart sinks. If I were to think about it logically and generously, it is unlikely to be due to age of a GP. Most likely the funding issue which means shorter appointment times, lack of training (as in CPD rather than poor core training), quite possibly local quirks around service availability. In our case most inappropriate referrals are where GP did not investigate differential diagnoses or a patient has an adjacent diagnosis but the appropriate local service is oversubscribed so they try their luck with us instead. Everyone is busy, mistakes are made, things are missed, there is no sense of full health picture in most cases. It's pretty dire and, yes, requires self-advocacy and self-management from patients.
I've been prescribed wrong doses of medication myself. It's not great, is it...

The problem is with the wrong HRT if it was my mum she would stick on the patch and not know any better. It takes a lot of research and time, I carry enough of a mental load without having to get print outs of blood tests cos I don’t trust them.

Or googling my medicine so I know what I’m taking - I have 3 immediate Doctors in the family my sister in law and two brother in laws - one a GP. I feel embarrassed going to them for them to say yep you need to say X Y Z.

I completely understand your frustration. I am just saying that it is likely a system issue not individual GP so, by all means, shop around but don't expect it to be vastly different with a different GP/surgery.

Ok thank you. That is so sad to hear.

At least you have regular doctors! Our surgery doesn't have any, you see a locum, IF you can get a face to face appointment! You can't just phone the surgery either, instead you fill in a form on Anima, at 7.30 in the morning, then wait for a text. You could then get a phone appointment, speaking to who knows who. Occasionally you get an actual face to face appointment but that's no guarantee you'll see anyone. DH had an appointment booked re hypertension, cancelled afternoons, rearranged for following week, cancelled 20 mins notice, staff illness, now have to wait a month!

The NHS is broken and no longer fit for purpose but unless you can afford private treatment nothing is going to change.

Just to share another experience, when I moved to the city I currently lived in I spent quite a while reading CQC reports, speaking to neighbours and looking at other measures of patient satisfaction before choosing which surgery to register with (I'm fortunate to have a choice where I am). My current surgery is genuinely outstanding. Great continuity of care, choice, happy to discuss multiple issues, easy to get longer appointments if you want etc. I do get the sense they have a younger population and its a relatively affluent catchment area, so I suspect they are under less clinical pressure. My sister is a GP in an impoverished part of London, what she describes in terms of the complexity of patients in terms of comorbidities, obesity, the fact that many don't speak English, the ageing population and huge social needs... well with the resources and pressure they are working with its no wonder mistakes sometimes get made. I really worry for my sister, I'm a medical professional and don't think I could handle the conditions they work under.

Sadly I don’t think another GP will be better. Blame it on whatever you like but I think your approach of asking for results, doing your own research needs to be done. Me and my kids all have an endocrine condition and the amount of pushing I have to do on tests being borderline or out of range “oh well I didn’t know what that meant in children so marked it as normal” 🙄

Within our actual clinic there is a world of difference between the knowledge of the different doctors. It’s terrifying op, I’m so sorry but I agree, luck of the draw

Im sorry to say i changed Gp and it did not help. It is a case now of having to do your own checking.

Buy iron bisglycinate and get your daughter to take it every other day to reduce digestive consequences (ferrous fumarate or ferrous sulphate are what they will give as prescription and i know in most people they are difficult to tolerate ).

I asked the Frailty and Falls team again this year, having asked it last year, why MIL is on tolterodine for urinary urge incontinence. Its not supposed to be given to people with cognitive impairment. First of all he argued and said there was nothing else so i stated the couple of alternatives (ive got a good memory for drug names) and it was "oh yes, we will ask the GP". Yet the whole point is a medication review so why the heck i have to point it out.......

They wanted to start my partner on a statin, and he got several calls about this from someone at the surgery talking about his QRisk score and trying to persuade him to go on statins. I listened in. We didnt fully understand what they were talking about..... but we looked into it after the call, and its a kind of algorithm into which you input data to come up with your risk score, or the likelihood of having a heart attack. We couldnt believe that the postcode affected the score...as did having a relative with heart issues (this bit understandable) .. His dad died early of a heart attack but the lifestyle and diet couldnt be more different..... I checked NICE guidance, none of it was followed, no talk of exercise, or diet, or stress, no suggestion of lifestyle modification first before drug treatment..... The practice must have been getting funding to get people onto statins hence the weird kind of "sales" pitch about QRisk.

6 months later,, another call from a different person at GP, with his latest cholesterol results etc, no you dont need a statin......

I hear you OP. There are certain medications i cannot take with an autoimmune condition. I tell them I have it, it's written in big letter on the GP screen, so I have to trust they will take this condition into account right?

I get the prescription and read the manufacturers leaflet where it says do not take with that particular condition so I call the GP back. Oh they say, our booklets google say it's fine to take, you must be misreading it." I have to physically shove the manufacturing leaflet under their noses before they believe me 🙄 I fecking pay for prescriptions so it's a waste of my money, time and health. They did this FOUR times for one health problem. I still don't have any usable medication for it, I've given up.

I honestly don't think you needed a gp appointment regarding the iron. You could see she might benefit from it, why did you need a gp appointment for that?

This is it - we don’t they’ve all retired. And we fill in the form (it’s from 8am-530pm) so a big window. Then you get a text either saying you’ll get a call today from a doctor - they will give a doctor’s name but it’s not always consistent. Or if it’s less urgent you get a date for an appointment

i didn’t ask for a GP appointment for the iron. I pushed back on the. Blood test results - expecting they would do me a prescription but they wanted an appointment to discuss it - maybe cos she’s 14? No idea. For my HRT I didn’t get another appt I got a text.

It's an absolute s*show. I needed a bloodtest before my annual diabetes appointment due in January. The bloodtest is on 23rd April! I hope you can get everything sorted out soon.

moving may not solve your problems, I moved from my gp (as I had zero trust in them due to gaslighting me that I had anxiety when actually it was cancer) and the new practice is actually worse, indifference, a rotating group of locums and just lots of mistakes.

Our GP practice is really rather good, provided you are middle class and intelligent. If you are the sort of person who might eat a meal with your doctor, then you will be well looked after. If you're thicker or rougher or just older and less well educated, then your outcome will be worse. BUT, frankly, it would have been the same regardless. Our area is generally known for poor health, and shorter lives. And it's not Blackpool.

My family have had so many utterly awful experiences with GPs that if one told me the sky was blue, I’d double check.

Absolutely no problem getting an appointment, but the drivel they come out with makes it completely pointless.

My mum’s Parkinson’s was diagnosed as stress, my sister’s pulmonary embolism was a pulled muscle and it seems my severe iron deficiency could be treated by eating spinach!

I moved house a couple of years ago.

my new Gp is awful.

I have multiple prescriptions as am disabled.

it took six repeats before it was finally correct. Constant emails and checking it at the pharmacy and handing medication back.

they clearly have targets for stuff because I get rung up and they try to persuade me to go on this or stop that. No advice or any consideration for how these drugs impact me - it’s sales pitch not a medical consultation.

getting in to actually see a GP is not possible. I have literally never seen one, but I’ve had several medication reviews with pharmacy assistants over the phone who keep trying to change the meds my consultant gave me because apparently it’s not standard treatment.

last time I had a chest infection I booked in to see an online gp to get antibiotics (I have asthma) as mine wouldn’t see me. It was 70 quid but at least I got some treatment.