Normal amount GP contact for a healthy child - red flag?

[CucumberCool]

Would you be surprised if a "very healthy child" (GPs words) had 41 incidents of contact with the GP this year?

Let's say those are recorded as GP surgery being phoned and the DR returning the call (so 2 incidents), would you be surprised that 20 phone calls had been made in the last 5 months?

Child has no cronic health conditions, allergies or had any accidents & is 7y/o.

Yes. I'd assume that either the child has experienced a sudden influx of issues, or the parent calling is experiencing a high degree of anxiety.

That's suddenly more than twice a week- I would be concerned as a health care provider to see a child that often, absolutely. Either there is some new chronic issue, or a parent with health anxiety surely?

In the last 12 months? Or since January.

It depends. When DD’s tonsillitis became frequent, for example, we had to attend surgery each time just to get each episode medically witnessed for the surgery referral. Another of my DC had a sort of appointments trying to figure out another issue, that turned out to be a treatable but unusual condition.

Id this a stepchild? Grandchild? Do you know more about the “contacts” than the number? Or is it your child and you’re worried about appearances?

It is genuinely hard to comment sensibly without the context.

Sounds like a lot to me. My daughter goes to the GP about twice a year, and one of those would be for a flu vax

That’s just it isn’t it? All anyone can say is “it’s a lot”.

Without more information nobody knows if it’s down to an emerging chronic issue, a run of bad luck, parental anxiety or something else.

For a "very healthy" person, whether they're an adult or child, that is a lot of contacts with GP..
I would consider myself and my DC to be very healthy and we usually have at most one contact with GP in a year.
Except when they were babies and we attended the baby clinic appointments

Would sound to me that either the child is not "very healthy " and has underlying health problem or someone has health anxiety

Why say it was 41 incidents, when really it was just 20...for every call to the GP, there was a call back?

20 in 5 months so roughly 4 a month. Yes it's a lot but a child could be very healthy and pick up a virus, which leads to a secondary virus and so on and may suffer from a prolonged bout of sickness without actually suffering from a chronic illness.

Or a child could have moles or things like that that might not be making the child unwell but need a doctor to refer them somewhere to be checked.

Were all of the incidents separate or was there some incidents where the contact with the GP was following up on the previous issues?

How do you know the GP's words?

Is there a chance that there is in fact something wrong with the child and the gp is just dismissing it ? I spent 6 weeks ringing the Dr about my child to be told they were healthy until our health visitor figured out what was wrong. Some gps can be very dismissive

Disclaimer - complete lay person not a hcp just my opinion:
It is a lot but it depends on what it’s for and if it’s for different things or all similar things. If it’s similar I would think it would warrant further investigation if it’s different and mild things then I would be inclined to think anxious parent.
having said that everyone’s immune system is low at the moment as a result of COVID and there does seem to be an endless illness cycle particularly in children who are now being exposed to stuff at school.

Yes, it is too much, far too much but I would be very very very surprised if that parent has managed to get an equal number of appointments. In my experience, I can call my surgery 20 times over 2 weeks to get just a blooming telephone appointment… if I am lucky, 95% of the time my calls get cut with the message that they have no more appointments and to try “tomorrow” and that is after waiting on the line for an hour from as soon as the line is open.

It's really hard to say. But it's good if there are concerns that the family are under the gp radar. What are your concerns?

My 7 year old hasn’t been to the dr since she was 2. I haven’t called them for anything regarding her either.

twice a week is very concerning.

Is it your child?

Had the child had a lot of GP appointments before this year?

What were the GP appointments about?

Very high
mine have only ever been to the doctors for vaccinations -
DS 10 once in 10 years for a bug
DS 6 never.

That's a lot. DD is 3 and has been in contact with the doctor's once to get antibiotic drops for an eye infection. I would wonder at the definition of 'healthy' with that much contact. Either they aren't really healthy or have a very anxious parent.

Also slightly impressed they've managed to get that many callbacks after reading on here how difficult people find it to get in touch with their GP!

Hard to day at 7 maybe a bit much, but then my kid managed to have a very high fever, got bit and required antibiotics and managed to cut his finger that required stitches- all within the space of four days. When they were a baby till about age 2, they were definitely ill every other week and mostly these weren't just cold viruses but some random illness that required a doc

It's a lot. Are they related or different illnesses? My 7 yr old has numerous health conditions but has seen the GP once this year for an asthma review and the Children's clinic once for a UTI. Is there health anxiety or indicators for MSPB ?

Once a week is very high. My 5.5 year old has severe allergies and asthma. I think I've contacted the surgery once or twice this year at most (relating to her inhalers).

Yes that is a lot. Either child is not so healthy, has a chronic condition which is unstable or parent has a form of anxiety.

My "very healthy" 6 year old has never been to the doctors apart from vaccinations and the usual baby check at 6 weeks. Why would you be contacting the doctors about a healthy child? Even my other child who has asthma quite badly it's usually every few months, that to me feels a lot, I haven't been to the doctors since 2015 (apart from pregnancy). Does one of their parents have health anxiety?

It sounds like a lot, but I'm aware that (otherwise very healthy) DD went through a spate of ear infections, then eczema, followed by tonsillitis, followed by HFM (needed to see GP for diagnosis as it was EVERYWHERE). Which probably totalled 10 appointments in 3mo.

It was a blip, she went to the doc more in those 3mo than she has in the rest of her 6 years.

Could the visits be related to behavioural problems if the child is healthy?
I have known of a child to have very frequent visits due to this.