I can see a dentist, an osteopath and have an x ray. Why can't I see my GP face to face?

[pinkprosseco]

Where I am Registered the GP only does telephone triage and almost never invited anyone in for face to face appointment whether that's a persistent cough (not Covid), abdominal pains or potential arthritis, a ? Lesion on the skin etc etc. I feel that long after other key workers have gone back to normal, GPS who we depend on as a first line of advice and diagnosis, are shirking responsibility. Surely the missed diagnosis the BBC and other current affairs websites are referring to are only going to get worse. Why isn't there a mandate they return to work properly. Anyone else?

Perhaps we should just totally go back to normal. Back to the lovely old days of a 3-4 week wait for a routine appointment. Fill up the waiting rooms again and stop the vaccine clinics.

It’s ridiculous.
I don’t understand why some people are being defensive.
It’s bizarre.
Then there is the “you can only call at this time for an appointment”

@BuggerBognor

Thanks *@Shannith* but I’ve worked in commerce practicing business law for 20 years, I certainly don’t need a part-time GP mansplaining what profit is to me. It doesn’t detract from my point, which is that GP practices are not a “business” in the sense that most of us would understand.

The £70k quoted in my post was for salaried GP’s and the practice is obliged to publish this data on their website. If you’re suggesting that partners take home even more than this, that is even less justifiable (particularly if the level of dissatisfaction expressed on here is typical).

@BuggerBognor I'd love to know where this practice is, I'm clearly underpaid

[quote ConfusedAdultFemale]@BuggerBognor if your employer won’t allow you to take a phone call from your GP I assume you’re not allowed to go in for a face to face appointment either, which is illegal. They are not allowed to deny you time for medical appointments whether that’s a telephone consultation or a face to face appointment.[/quote]
A F2F appointment is a fixed time so needs only a short time off work.

A GP telephone consultant can be "anytime today", so the patient effectively needs to be waiting with their phone until the call back, potentially for hours.

We need all GP surgeries to operate a timed-call back system so that workers can be ready to take the call.

@BuggerBognor Last year's patient satisfaction survey: The majority of individuals (81.8%) rated their overall experience of their GP practice as good, with more than two in five (43.6%) rating their experience as ‘very good’. Compared with 2019, the proportion of patients who rated their experience as good has decreased by 1.2 percentage points from 82.9%.

Source: www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/2020/07/09/gp-patient-survey-2020/

GPs have been pretty shite for years. I’ve usually diagnosed myself from google before I go and know what medication I need or what specialist I need to be referred to. Time to get a much better system where people aren’t stuck with crap doctors and can vote with their feet. I’m all for a more private based system.

GP’s aren’t shirking responsibility. They’re following the model they’ve been told to follow by the government.

Our disabled son had a severe ingrow toenail, was in agony, and it was bad sceptic and infected, go would not see him prescribes penicillin over phone after we sent a photo. They did not work, the redness and swelling was going up his foot, called back got some different antibiotics, didn’t work, I went to a and e and the consultant there emailed GP to say he needed an urgent podiatry referral for nail removal, except they were shut too. No one wanted to know, a and e doctor said left untreated it could turn to sepsis.
In the end we paid private, no other choice but he was badly let down. I raised a complaint and got a bullshit response back ‘didn’t I know we are in the middle of a pandemic’
He is also waiting for squint surgery, he is so badly affected he can only see out of one eye. Been waiting two years

@BuggerBognor £63K for what exactly? 3 full days before tax would be my guess? So 36 hours work.

GP’s are just overpaid gatekeepers tbh.

I think telephone triage works well for loads of things and I trust GPs to decide when they need to see a patient.

Tbh I think a lot of this is about what people want rather than what they need.

I don’t think the pay figures are quite so appealing when you work out the hourly rate on actual hours worked.

Yanbu OP. It's a crazy situation. GP's are far too reluctant to see people. I recently had a GP try to examine my 3 year old, who had been hit in the head the before and was still woozy to the point she was falling over by video phone! We had terrible trouble getting her to look at the phone and similtaneously try to track my finger with her eyes!

I also posted recently about an experience I had with an OOO GP with very bad english who diagnosed me with chostocondritus and dehydration via phone. I had called with bladder pain, left flank pain increased urination and dizziness 😐 yeah........it turns out I had a uti. I had to buy the test and antibiotics myself (and had to fib about the flank pain because every pharmacist I spoke to said I needed to see a Dr 😔)

My son had all his allergies and skin issues 'diagnosed' over the phone and by text!
He was 3m old for over 3m after we were given so many different things. In the end we had a paediatrian apt and she hit the roof and said wth this is a young baby and the wouldn't see face to face.

Even 3 weeks ago I had to argue as he had upset tummy and earache and wheazing (due to allergies but needed to rule out infection) . I had to argue to get them to see him. A
Originally they said they'd see him in the car park! I said pardon he's not a dog going to the vet. It was chilly and no way was I stripping him down outside.
What could have been a quick call to book an apt ended up 3 hours to and throw before being seen was very stressful.

I need to see a gp. I have severe ovary pain. But I know they won't see me so can't see the poiny in calling

Constantly called for a face to face app for poor old dad who,couldn't pass water. Was told it was probably a urine infection, send in a sample. Did so, antibiotics prescribed then told to stop antibiotics as no infection. Rang and begged for face to face, more antibiotics for prostate, still no face to face examination. This went on for two weeks. Eventually GP examined and found his bladder was huge and unable to pass any urine at all due to blockage. Immediate admission. He died.

@BuggerBognor I've worked in commerce all my life to and no it's not a traditional P&L but they don't get paid regardless.

And for all the targeting ire at GPs - one of the reasons they are not like a business that you and I would understand is that they have to follow government guidelines and the government advice is to call triage.

Because- this is what the government- and I'm sure GPs too - would have liked to have been doing for ages. Because it's more efficient. So kind of more profitable. And now they can get away with it and blame Covid.

There's a bigger problem in that fewer medical students are going into general practice because it is (relatively) low paid, long hours and stressful. So we've got an aging population and less GPs to go round.

Something has to give and this might actually be the least worse option.

My usually fabulous practice is dreadful. It’s almost impossible to get through on the phone. They close for 2 hours every day. The call back system constantly cuts you off after waiting for an hour for the call back.

DH had a phone message to ring them yesterday. Tried calling. Failed. Did an econsult to them them. They ring when he’s on a call. Then repeat. Took over 24 hours to find out they want him to come in for a blood test.

I was in for a blood test myself. There were 2 people waiting to see doctors. Both young. First thing I said to DH ‘where are all the old people’. How many times are they ringing to speak to a human. Ludicrous.

Our GP's have seen many hundreds of people face to face (after triage) the last twelve months. In ppe for those with Covid symptoms. Most things can be dealt with without bringing people in. Most, not all. We can get through many many patients a day this way.
We can't have everybody booking their own face to face appointments ad hoc though, because due to social distcancing rules allowing limited people allowed in the surgery, that system would currently result in several months wait to be seen. Often unnecessarily.
It's in most people's interest for their GP to be profitable. They can pay me more hours to do your smear, do your bloods, vaccinate your children sooner etc.

@Tayberrytangle

Pet8 I hope a&e are helpful. Sounds like a possible quinsy? If so, you need to get antibiotics prescribed. My husband had the same throat symptoms over the BH weekend 5 days after his Moderna jab. 111 and out of hours insisted it was a side effect and refused to examine him - (I even pcr tested him so they would let him in!) To cut a long story short, after 3 days of 111 he had a quinsy (throat abcess) which ended up rupturing in the out of hours GP car park - the GPs were still hiding in the building behind all the 'covid safe' measures. He eventually got antibiotics 6 hours after the abcess burst which was a huge sepsis risk. There is just no excuse for vaccinated GPs hiding from acutely unwell patients. If he had had it diagnosed before it burst he would have been admitted to hospital for intravenous antibiotics instead of being left sitting in the car until it burst!

Waited until 5pm to see if surgery would call back. He refused to let me call 111 at first. He eventually relented and now we are waiting for an ambulance crew to come and assess him.

@BuggerBognor - I don’t know any GPs that get paid overtime. They don’t get paid hourly either, I was simply making the point that the published GP earning figures don’t mean much.

@Tayberrytangle sorry meant to add, I hope your husband is okay now.
Quinsy was my first fear. GP receptionist was joking that he'll be right as rain in a couple of days when I rang to say the GP had not called.
She did make me question if I was over reacting.