GPs do not want to see patients in person

[Lily7050]

Apologies, if there might have been similar thread already.
Just trying to understand why it is ok for supermarket staff or hairdressers to work all day among many customers, dentists treat patients, and GPs still refuse to see patients?
I got 15 months old DS and ended up in A&E each time he was unwell because GPs refuse to examine him. A&E doctors laughed at "telephone examinations" of such a young child done by GPs.
Where do NHS GPs get instructions that they should not be seeing patients face-to-face and create more workload for A&E?
I hope there might be GPs reading this thread and explain their mysterious behaviour.

Our local GP surgery is still closed. I assume they will see people as necessary at their main surgery 5 miles away - but not much use if you don't have access to a car and want to avoid using the bus.
Our dental surgery is still not doing routine check ups. DS was due to have one in early April and has still not been offered another appointment.

I had a letter from my optician the other day telling me my eye test is due. The letter reminded me (in paragraph 1) of how important this is due to serious health conditions it could detect. Paragraph 2 went on to say that I need to make an appointment for a telephone assessment to decide how urgent my appointment is. If not deemed urgent then it will be delayed for a further 3-6 months. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure they won't pick up a tumour or glaucoma in a telephone appointment (DH was referred last year as having suspected glaucoma following a routine eye test - turned out it was and has been caught early).
The fallout from all these delayed appointments is going to be huge.

Our GP surgery appeared to move to a position of viewing their patients as an annoyance a few years ago.

I wonder if it is a policy problem or a training one but some GPs seem very reluctant to deal with people anymore.

Why choose to train long and hard for a job with people if you are not genuinely interested in people?

From my GP colleagues the main reason for limiting F2F appointments is because of risk of cross infection in the waiting areas and inability to comply with social distancing.

To the poster who was not happy that her GP would not prescribe a medication without a letter from the oncologist. That is entirely the correct and safe thing to do. It would be irresponsible to prescribe a drug (even just iron or calcium) because a patient says that their hospital consultant wanted them to have it. I do agree however that primary and secondary care has become too disjointed. A lot of this is because the different ways in which they are remunerated. A GP practice may not get paid for doing a blood test that was needed their hospital treatment.
GP practices, being businesses constantly have to think about funding. I am hospital based and whilst I try not to waste money by prescribing paracetamol, ordering unnecessary scans etc, finances don't have a huge impact on my day to day clinical decisions.

Also, many GPs work across surgery , care home, and even hospital. Cross infection is a real risk to patients. That's why some GPs can't even live at home with their children at the moment. I do wish people would be less critical.

It’s extremely difficult for many surgeries .
I’m a GP in a large health centre and we are lucky to have the space to cordon off a separate area with its own entrance for patients with fever to be seen in.
Many practices wouldn’t have that option.
You are then left with much higher risk of cross contamination within the waiting areas etc.
We have been doing what we can by phone and video but seeing anyone that needs it face to face throughout.
I hate working like this. It’s exhausting and stressful. We are all really busy, I’m constantly anxious I’m going to miss something & worrying about vulnerable patients that aren’t presenting until they are more unwell.
Communication is difficult with masks etc especially with elderly pts or people that don’t speak good English.
Everything takes twice as long , cleaning room down afterwards etc when we only have 10 minutes for each appointment anyway.
Everything I love about the job, the normal day long face to face contact , has gone at the moment.
We can’t get the same secondary care investigations or referrals in many areas without long delay, although that is improving now and was never the case for very urgent referrals.
I miss seeing people all day and feeling as though I’m making some difference.
It all feels like incredibly stressful firefighting at the moment...
This isn’t intended as a complaint . I fully appreciate most people’s jobs are extremely stressful at present and many peoples far more than mine.
It’s just disheartening to think that people believe GPs are somehow enjoying any of this....

The last thing we need is gp's off self isolating and unable to get tests like teachers etc.

Gp's have been overworked and under resourced for quite a few years and most of the ones I used to see at my practice were 40 plus.

I'm not a GP but I am a Dr who does community work

Honestly most of us would rather just do business as usual. I hate struggling with tech and having to adapt to assessing via phone. It's a massive hassle for me. It's not easier or less work for me this way it's probably harder.

The one and only reason we aren't doing is to stop spreading the virus. In the early days a number of GPs got very ill and they also spread it far and wide in their communities. I know of half a dozen people who were infected by one GP who didn't know he had it. Care homes have mostly banned health workers from visiting. Hospitals and Gp surgeries were major sources of transmission because they are attract sick symptomatic people who then interact with others coughing in waiting rooms.

A lot of stuff actually can get dealt with adequately on the phone or a video call. Not everything of course but a lot of things. Some patients actively prefer it because it saves them time off work, travel time, parking fees etc. My mum is really happy that her oncology appts have gone to video as it was a 2hr round trip for her which she found painful and tiring as she is very ill. Now she can talk to her consultant from her bedroom and he is more available to her because he doesn't travel to different hospitals or have endless late running clinics due to transport issues.

Before lockdown the partners in my gp practice sold up and all are new gp' bar one ( 6 new 1 old). Im suppised to have a monthly appt with a GP.
They have not called me once. The one time i called as they made a prescribing error the new head of practice was incredibly rude. I have 2 issues that really need dealt with my a gp but i have no faith or trust in them.