Can we have a thread on ridiculous things GP's have said?

[Butmummysnotanearlybird]

My contribution was "Oh well baby needs to know what sick tastes like" when they actually had CMPA and reflux. I'm sure there's worse out there 🙃

Asked my GP for a dairy-free alternative to something. She gave me something with milk. She did not know milk was dairy.

Told my GP I was very stressed, told me I should take anti-depressants.

Asked my GP for help with sleep paralysis. Asked what that was.

Had this but less harsh.

"You know anxiety can give you all kind of weird symptoms." They referred me to counselling. A year later my mental health was much better but physical symptoms worse. They sighed and shook their head and very reluctantly referred me to a neurologist. When I went back to see them months later and told them I had been diagnosed with ms they said "really?"

Fortunately my current gp is amazing.

We are lucky to have GP’s.

GPs are people and as such are a mixed bunch. I have had some wonderful GPs but did spend 3 years at a Pharma company working with GPs and saw some shocking things. It was a small minority to be fair but when they were bad they were BAD.
I also met some wonderful, overworked GPs who were really trying to help people, often in difficult circumstances and in a flawed system.

Having said that a GP did tell me once that my child’s food issues were down to a lack of discipline and that no child would actually go hungry rather than eat something they didn’t want to. A wonderful GP in the same practice diagnosed DDs hyper mobility in around 60 seconds after several hospital Doctors, 2 HVs, 2 Physios and a school nurse missed it though.

Agreed.

Okay, I'm including consultants (if it's their field).

1. Babies can't get diarohea.
2. Tongue tie is a myth
3. It's probably a virus, have some antibiotics
4. It's inappropriate to speak to a woman about contaception. (Re me wanting to speak to him)
5. Why would you think this is what's wrong with you? You must have anxiety if you think you have [thing]. Would you like a referal for anxiety. (Twice, first I didn't think I had [thing], I was referred to rule it out as per standard protocol. Second, I had physical lab tested evidence and was looking for extent of problem.)
6. You must wean off BF by 9 months or you'll never be able to. Trust me I'm the expert.
7. All babies happily take a bottle and always prefer it, you must be lying when you say yours doesn't (re baby not putting on weight). Would not discuss whether there was any problem, as obviously I was just 'deliberately staving my baby for attention like most bf mothers'.
8. I don't know what a pulled elbow is. But I'll refer for an x-ray and if it's not broken nothing we can do. (Very common injury, easily fixed by doc, doesn't show on an xray).

People wonder why I distrust doctors, I've more bad experiences than good, including bullying, threats, and sexual assault.

@Prestissimo I completely agree

This. I have no skin in the game but will always stand up for my GP practice-they are, without exception, amazing.

Anyone who thinks of leaving a profession because of stuff on an Internet forum isn't mentally strong enough to work at all in my view. This goes for doctors, nurses, teachers civil servants etc.

People aren't leaving because of comments online - it will be to do with the way they're treated by their employer.

You'll see that people have mentioned their good GPS on here and if that's you then the thread isn't about you.

Like the thread the other day about lazy civil servants wasn't about me. As I'm hard working and bloody good at my job. So that thread wasn't offensive to me in any way. People should feel able to call out rude or bad behaviour in the public sector and there's still far too much deference of doctors in this country.

"You'd be thin if you were in Belsen."

😳

'Period pain is normal you just need to put up with it' - I had dysmenorrhoea. Couldn't get off the bathroom floor for 1 day a month.

'Just put some vaseline on it' - severe hand excema.

'It's stress, you need to see a therapist' - thyroid condition

I think many GPs are brilliant but honestly I can already see the outcome of this thread. Women not being listened to, their pain being dismissed, being 'hysterical'.

A GP said ‘I think there’s something in the water’ to me, as one of my symptoms was apparently the same as another patient he had seen earlier in the week. I laughed expecting the doctor to do the same, but no, nothing. I rebooked with a different GP who was much more helpful.

Another GP told me that my period pain couldn’t be bad enough to stop me going to work and that paracetamol would be enough to make the pain manageable. 🙃 The same GP, when I said I was struggling to give my 18 month old son calpol as he kept spitting it out/turning his head/crying etc, said ‘well why is he doing that, you must tell him he needs to have it’ 😂 Yes I’ll just explain the importance of medication to a 1 year old.

This one wasnt ridiculous at all but makes me laugh all these years later when I remember it. I was a teenager and worked as a waitress. As I was leaving the doctor noticed the blue plaster on my finger and said 'why are you using that plaster? Is it to get more sympathy?'

No mate, I work with food and need to see the plaster if it comes off...

And this is a valid thread. It's good to show doctors get things badly wrong, and there's bad eggs there too. The nhs is not above this and shouldn't be idolized like it is.

The fact that 90% of people I've told, both in the nhs and out, that think doctors not only can't commit sexual assault / abusive behaviour but that those actions should be considered acceptable. Mostly because you wave all rights to independent though t when you see one.

'Like the thread the other day about lazy civil servants wasn't about me. As I'm hard working and bloody good at my job. So that thread wasn't offensive to me in any way. People should feel able to call out rude or bad behaviour in the public sector and there's still far too much deference of doctors in this country.'

Im a civil servant and I agree, the thread the other day didnt bother me because I work bloody hard but we should also have the ability to question any poor behaviour from a public sector employee.

People can post ridiculous things GPs have said without it meaning they're trashing the whole profession. I've had wonderful GPs and I've had less wonderful ones. Personally never had them say anything ridiculous to me but plenty of people clearly have. If you're really unwell and someone who's supposed to help you doesn't (for whatever reason) there's nothing wrong with posting about it.

When people moan about cowboy builders or dodgy estate agents it doesn't meant they're saying they're all rubbish🙄

@KimWexlersPonyTail , @CosmopolitanPlease maybe its just a common thing with MS as i got told both of these things too! along with eventually being told that if i wanted a referral for an MRI I had to go to a&e (surprise surprise i got diagnosed with MS)

Luckily though my usual GP is great (the one i saw about suspected MS was temporary cover) and my baby's GP is wonderful too (just yesterday she managed to complete an entire physical exam so gently that baby didnt even wake up)

And when my OH called as the antihistamines just werent touching his hay fever (which triggers his asthma) the GP told him it was up to him to research other medications in advance of the appointment and come prepared so he could request the medication he wants. I thought 'Oh aye I am sure GPs would love that, 'Dr Google says''

This thread reminds me of a journalist posting in a FB group I’m part of, clearly fishing for tales of how terrible our local GPS and health centres are.
Said journalist had her arse handed to her on a plate by 200+ people 😂

Riiiight ....

It’s very unlikely to be an allergy… If your baby still refuses to feed and is being sick and losing weight in a couple of weeks then book another appointment…

<despite textbook allergy symptoms, family history, food and symptoms diary, etc etc…)

Years later… still very much has said allergy …

'I'm not going to give you the PND test. You can't have PND. You really wanted this baby.'

Same here. 4 years I went back and forth with symptoms. Face numbness, pins and needles, vertigo etc. was continually treated like a neurotic idiot. My dh then went to the gp once with a loss if sensation in his fingers, had an mri within a few weeks.

Eventually got that mri after I lost all use of my legs 🤷‍♀️

Of course it's not just an Internet forum that makes someone consider leaving a job they love and trained hard to get. I'm confident the doctor I'm speaking to later won't ever have been on Mumsnet. But it is part of a narrative. Ever since the government messed up our contract negotiations in 2004 there's been a steady stream of 'lazy, fat cat GPs' headlines and the public buy into that. That's what leads to patients shouting at me on the phone about why I'm not doing any proper work any more and why we have patients threatening our receptionists when they can't get an appointment for their minor ailment within 4 hours of asking.

I'm not asking for deference to the profession. I don't place myself on a pedestal. But I do work bloody hard, and so do my colleagues, and it is increasingly like pushing water uphill. And threads like this are just gratuitous nastiness. They are not a support system for those who have been wronged, or really of any benefit other than to feel good by laughing at someone else.

Had loads to do with doctors this year and they've all been bloody great and even saved my life with sepsis this year :) but when DS was little a doctor accidentally prescribed an adults medication for him, that was daft but luckily I recognised it because I had it and asked the pharmacist if it was safe and we put the formal complaint in together about him. Wouldn't have minded as much as my baby wasn't hurt because he never took it but he was so arrogant and rude.