What are GPs actually doing during all this time ?

[VivaMiltonKeynes]

We were discussing this . In our surgery they have e consult online and you get a call back . On the couple of times this has occurred it's not even a doctor at our practice - it sounds like a service they use and it is really appalling . They don't even seem to have read your notes . The nurses are run off their feet doing the usual blood tests, flu shots etc but what are all the GPs doing ?

Instead of coming on the thread to tell us the crap care some of us here are fully aware that we are definitely experiencing is just 'GP bashing', it would be good if some of the GPs being defensive here would wake up to the fact that if they are working flat out and we are still dangling on the end of a phone, then the problem is probably to do with infrastructure and planning, which they are much better placed to influence - at least at practice level - than we are. For many practices, a lot of these access problems pre-date Covid, and if GPs, particularly partners, had addressed them then, instead of reflexively blaming patients, we might all be having a better time of it now
GPs explaining what they are doing isn't denying there are issues.

Unfortunately there's a certain group of posters on here who start threads having a go at professions and then when people in the profession say 'actually, this is what we are doing', posters get stroppy about it saying:

• but what ARE doctors/ teachers actually doing??
• well you've been paid for months
• why are you all so defensive?
• can nobody ask a question anymore

Had someone started a thread asking about infrastructure problems then people would reply answering that, but posters rarely do. They are much more interested in claiming they really don't understand what doctors etc do all day and simply they are being paid a fortune for doing nothing.

@ArabellaScott

I think many of the problems people encounter are coming from receptionists and practise management rather than the actual doctors/nurses. The HCPs I see are fine, it's just become virtually impossible to actually see one.

I totally agree with this.

I have now waited more than 6 weeks for a blood test review. Blood tests were ordered efficiently, bloods were taken efficiently. It all then fell down in the Admin. Letter sent by consultant to GP with test results got filed and forgotten so when I asked at the surgery for test results they said they didnt have them.

Hospital admin didnt respond to voice mails for 3 weeks. Though they did phone back eventually to tell me the results had been sent to GP surgery. GP surgery had still not recognised they had some blood test results but eventually found the letter from the consultant when pushed.

I am now waiting on a phone appointment from a GP I have never spoken with before and will probably never speak with again (I have spoken with the same GP more than once in fewer than a handful of occasions in the time I have been with the surgery - 14 years). The appointment was at 9am.

We are not in a Covid hotspot area, the surgery has always been like this. I would change but I am nervous to as all surgeries in the area have a fairly poor reputation.

My surgery seems to not be doing much at all. No appointments only call backs, you have to sit on the phone at 8 am and hope after an hour or so you might be lucky enough to get a call back appointment.
Im extreemely clinically vulnerable but even after explaining to obstructive receptionist still cant get an appointment.

There seems to be a lot of bitterness directed at public sector workers, especially during Covid, where people like to turn public sector works into a group to direct their anger towards instead of the government for its handling of the crisis.

DH, DS and I are all accountants, although I had to give up work to care for DD, because she came home for the weekend in March and her care home refused to have her back; then after the lockdown she refused to go back. Anyway, DH and DS have wfh and got all their audits, accounts, tax returns and payments in on time; even though DH feels really unwell (heart problems) and DS has a toddler, and a newborn baby around in the background - if necessary DS has worked until 1 am.

I made a claim to the Carers Allowance Unit, and after 7 months, they told me they had put my account on hold due to staffing problems with the crisis. Despite a request from the CCG, SS did not get round to a carer's assessment in 7 months, and only got round to asking about support for DD after 6 months.

If the parallel industries of accountancy and probably law can deal with tax, why can't the public sector deal with their side on time?

As for anger, I dare say posters do not come onto MN to discuss how abusive they have been to retail workers? DD works in a pharmacy, and two friends' children have worked in retail during the crisis. They had to go to work with no PPE, no screens and often no sd in the beginning. They don't get to choose whether ill customers come into the shop or not. DD still has to get close to people to help them fill in the exemptions section of prescription forms, when for all she knows they have the corona virus. All three of them have remarked on how abusive customers have been. One, an assistant manager commented on how customers chose the youngest girls on the checkouts to try to bully them into allowing the customer to buy more of an item like toilet rolls, than were allowed - when in fact, it was the tills, which would not allow the goods to go through.

Mine are being brilliant.

Same day call back for a phone consultation, followed by a very thorough appointment the next day.

I then got excellent service from the hospital outpatient referral that followed.

Other family members are having similar experiences.

Well done all those hard working HCPs.

Gnome, the last time I had bloods done, I phoned up to see what the results were and the receptionist told me they were 'fine'. That was that. Six months later when I actually saw my GP, he was all 'why didn't anybody do anythign about your bloods, you're anaemic'.

Receptionists should not be making diagnoses. Ever.

OP has a point sorry. I say that working in a hospital too. My GP did see me when I rang although she didn’t have much choice she needed to see me in person.

I’ve heard others who need to be seen and haven’t been so lucky. In fact in the height of the pandemic I wanted the GP to listen to my DS chest and she was concerned about isolating the chairs in the surgery!

It is no better in the private health sector. Yes you can pay for the health, but all you get is a telephone video consultation. Operations forget it, the private sector is quietly saving lives by operating on NHS patients because the NHS cannot cope so are pushing on cancer treatment etc. into the private hospitals. OH has been waiting since 10th March for an operation which he paid for in advance, there are no theatres to be had. So there has been a knock on effect into the private sector.

My GP has referred me she said the best I can hope for is a video consultation.

DarkMintChocolate
I agree people won't come on here and share how abusive they have been to retail workers. I think they know that they would rightly be told where to go by most people who think any form of arsey, bullying and abusive behaviour is totally unacceptable.

That's a poor experience for your carer's support application. The thing is that staffing issues can happen anywhere so it makes little sense for posters generalizing about an incredibly diverse public sector when I highly doubt they'd decide that a problem with one restaurant warrants claims about 'the hospitality sector'.

There seems to be something about people such as HCP, doctors, teachers etc where people feel entitled to stick the boot in, and some posters have quite sizable chips on their shoulder.

I have had a disappointing experience with my GP surgery. You submit an e-consult form with photos etc. I waited for 4 days. Nothing. Phoned the surgery who claimed they had not received it despite me having an email confirmation. They then wanted me to text pictures in. Er no.

Ended up being called up by a nurse (called twice-the first time I was on a work call and she was stroppy with my OH...despite the fact I had said I needed a specific time as I was working and am in meetings almost constantly) who was pretty disinterested so I gave up with that ailment! This was a few months ago so maybe it has improved...who knows.

In my experience it depends on what you are needing to see them for. I lost my hearing slightly and needed someone to look in it, saw GP within a week. I also rang about my son's acne. Had a telephone consultation with a go, no need to bring him into the surgery, sent some photos, got a prescription. All very organised.

My dh however has had a very different experience with something more urgent and personal, which I've explained about on another thread so not going to regurgitate but it wasn't very satisfactory.

I’m loathe to comment again but I’m on annual leave this week and this thread is getting me so down that I did a run and then ate a family bag of Revels so I’m going to say one more thing.

I can’t own the mistakes other practices are making because they’re not my mistakes. I’m as frustrated as anyone else when I read about poor service. I’m giving my all and I want my colleagues to do so too.

My practice hasn’t stopped. We have done everything possible to accommodate our patients’ needs despite the difficulties created by covid. Our patients have been lovely with little cards/ gifts and positive messages. They are the reason I do what I do and I am so grateful to them.

I’m also ridiculously proud of our team.

In the same way that I wouldn’t (based on my experience of one shop) say that all shops are awful and that all shop owners must own it, I can’t be held responsible for every GP. In fact the OP’s question is unfair. There are thousands of GPs up and down the country so it’s impossible to answer for all of them.

I think that many complaints are probably valid but I also think there’s a lack of understanding as to what we do and how much we do.

To those who have been kind, thank you. To those having a bad experience, I’m so sorry, I’m a patient too and it’s awful to be let down. To those who have been cruel (especially the person who keeps making sweeping generalisations about my profession’s qualifications/ competence) I hope you are not as unhappy and bitter as you seem.

GP is often working frantically in the background trying to keep the wheels of the NHS turning. I’d quite like to wear a go pro in my head for a day so that folk could see how much I’m actually doing.

For now though I’ll just eat too much chocolate and catch up on 6 months worth of sleep before returning next week to continue to try to do my best.

In the same way that I wouldn’t (based on my experience of one shop) say that all shops are awful and that all shop owners must own it, I can’t be held responsible for every GP. In fact the OP’s question is unfair. There are thousands of GPs up and down the country so it’s impossible to answer for all of them.

I think that many complaints are probably valid but I also think there’s a lack of understanding as to what we do and how much we do.

To those who have been kind, thank you. To those having a bad experience, I’m so sorry, I’m a patient too and it’s awful to be let down. To those who have been cruel (especially the person who keeps making sweeping generalisations about my profession’s qualifications/ competence) I hope you are not as unhappy and bitter as you seem

Very well said.
It does seem like now schools have opened GP surgeries are the latest target for unhappy and bitter people who are incapable of differentiating between 'I have encountered this difficulty at my surgery on this occasion' and 'but seriously what ARE GPs doing all day? It's not like they have any patients in'.

I have had a great experience with my GP surgery. They are doing same day call backs and will give same day face to face appointments where needed. I also have the NHS app where you can book phone appointments, much better than waiting to get through at 8am

The people who get let down the most are the ones who cant advocate for themselves. They will have tests done and assume that 'no news is good news'. That will be a good assumption in a well run surgery. In a badly run surgery 'no news' can mean anything at all.

How do you tell that a surgery is well run or not and do you really have much of a choice anyway? A badly run surgery is unlikely to have a sign up to tell you.

I can advocate for myself. I also know which are the most likely things they will trip over: test results, prescriptions, follow up appointments, so I chase things up, I do my research. If I wasnt able to advocate for myself I would be in trouble.

The 8 or so who work at our surgery..I genuinely have no idea. As since March, my longterm prescriptions have been late, sometimes days (which has made me go into withdrawal..despite putting the request in the required 48 hours prior), and when I call to question this I am just told that they are too busy and will get to it. However, MIL has been advised to go to hospital for the fourth time in 8 months today after calling her GP. She thinks she has a chest infection this time. She was sent with a (apparently 'early stages? Not sure how they can tell but seemingly hey can)chest infection in April also, and the doctor she saw there was apparently fuming that she had not just been treated at the GP as all she needed was antibitotics but they had refused to see her at all and said if she 'was unable to wait and see how it goes' they advise a+E She has asthma, so was quite worried about the 'wait and see' method, given treating one too late has left her hospitalised before.

I get that some GPs are rushed off their feet during this. It really seems ours are just avoiding work though. No way do they not have anyone to do precriptions for 4 days after being due. Or someone available to check a 70 year old womans chest, especially when said woman has had issues prior, and has a history of breathing difficulties. I fail to believe all 8 are off sick at the same time also, as MIL 'wondered' that earlier when trying to explain her shoddy treatment.

I’m a Practice Manager. For those of you who are wondering what is going on at your own surgeries, or who have had sub standard treatment I have an idea for you.... why don’t you write or email the Practice Manager. Rather than speculating on a forum that the doctors are all sitting round doing nothing, shirking their duties and letting their patients down, put the question to them directly.

Nothing but praise for ours, though with thousands of new houses built around the town, telephone waits can be lengthy. A couple of weeks ago, rang about 4pm Friday afternoon, large spot suddenly spreading. Helpful receptionist, GP would ring me back. Did about 5pm, sent me a link to send photos. Rang back about 6.30 - asked questions, Saturday morning picked up prescription from surgery.

Both of us have had face to face and telephone consultants, both seen nurses.

My doctors surgery is as busy as ever, it's located in an area with a large elderly population and they've been run off their feet with all the additional flu jabs they've had to give. DS had his by our regular doctor at one of the clinics and I spotted a few of the other GP's there too.

Other than jabs they've been triaging by phone and still seeing people without Covid symptoms.

Ours seems to be doing telephone appointments first so not the usual service. I haven't tried to get an appointment - only seen my GP for 7 minutes in 15 years as I don't seem to get ill but I assume they won't be available when needed but we shall see in due course. Almost everything my sons have needed in the last 2 years despite the hundreds of thousands I pay in income tax the GP has not been able adequately to help and I have had to pay thousands of pounds. I would rather just opt out of the NHS and have my annual tax bills reduced by 20% of what they are to be honest.

First response was official complaint, which was..ignored. have also contacted some group called 'pals' if thats familiar? Which was where I was told to try there if I appear to be being ignored.

The pals thing is apparently a long process sometimes though, and is worse with covid understandably.

Also quite specifically said that some are rushed off their feet. Not really seeing why people shouldn't discuss bad experiences, because some doctors are good..

I suspect, or massively hope, ours is the exception here.

My surgery have been brilliant!

GPs are still working. Ring up for appointment as normal and one always rings back at the designated tome. They then decide over the phone if you need to be seen in person. Can't fault my surgery one bit.

My DH needs his blood pressure recording and was asked if he had his own machine at home. When he said no he was told by the GP that they were quite cheap to buy and when he told her he was unemployed was asked if he knew someone with one as the machine down the surgery gets used and could be dirty!

Our GP's send us to minor injuries for anything and everything and was giving out the wrong information two months after I told them we couldn't just turn up but had to go through 111.

I've tried to make an appointment as I have earache, which I then had to fill in an econsult form and they texted me and said to go to see a pharmacist who will then advise me whether I need to see a doctor. I didn't even warrant a phonecall.

Though I have made an appointment for a blood test for my diabetes check up which I've had to chase for. Still waiting for them to phone me back with the results and recommendations of two scans I had back in August. I have left countless messages but have been told it's not a priority!

Our surgery has become a farce.

My friend is a locum GP and the surgery she usually does stuff for has let her go as there isn't enough work.

DrD - perhaps your locum friend could go and help my DH, it would be lovely if he was home from the surgery before 8pm at least once a week. Don’t think I’ll see him for weeks once the Covid vaccines start.