The service you get from your GP

[susanmt]

Doing a little bit of market research for my dh here!!
His practice has just been ctiticised by the local health council, and they are a bit upset about it. Basically, the health council think that the two docs (dh and his partner) live too far away from the surgery to provide a good service.
So - how quickly would you think a doctor should come to see you in (1) A life threatening emergency (2) a Serious situation and (3) for a routine house call out of hours. In fact, how many of you get house calls at all, and, out of hours, are you covered by a call centre (cooperative cover by several practices) or by your own GP?
We are a bit hurt by this criticism as he works really hard and we have chosen not to live next door to the surgery as we don't want people turning up at the door at all times of the day and night (as happened to the previous doc - who said 'Under no circumstances live close to the surgery!!)
Thanks for your input!

[janh]

Having read all these I feel very humbly grateful for what our HC provides. (Re my emergency example, I didn't know what it was, or that is was life-threatening, until GP arrived!)

Many years ago DD2, aged about 5 months, had a funny reaction to her 2nd DPT, one of our GPs arrived in the middle of the night and stayed to observe her until she stabilised. We have also had a query appendicitis and again a GP came during the evening, poked, observed and waited and eventually said take her to A & E (they admitted her but it came to nothing.)

There is a pharmacy at our HC (3 practices I think) who will happily provide repeat prescriptions from a phone call (2-3 days usually.) They also dispense prescriptions for those who live outside town.

If you ring first thing and think your need is urgent then you will see a GP, often your own, the same day.

The HC has a treatment room which will deal with everything except probable fractures (no X-ray facility) during surgery hours.

The practice covers an extremely large rural area, and those living way out won't experience quite what we do, but I have to say I am very satisfied with the service provided to us. (Agree with bundle re Do Not Attends - what is the matter with these people???)

Not sure how this compares with yours, Susan?

[robinw]

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[JanZ]

Knowing a little about the area of Scotland where you live Susanmt, I would suspect that the "criticism" from the Health Council is purely because you have changed from what they were used to.

Just to clear some confusion that some of the other responses seem to have - the Local Health Council is NOT the "official" NHS (although they are finded by the local health authority/board) - it is an advisory body of mostly lay people, supposedly representing the health interests of the local people and are usually a thorn in the side of the Health Authority (Health Board in Scotland). They almost always want to retain the status quo - any change from what they are used to is treated with suspicion.

I think your dh should respond in a measured way, pointing out that AVERAGE distances (between him and his partner) are actually very low and that the service that he provides has never been compromised. He could always add that they should consider themselves lucky that you haven't moved to the cooperative system that most of the country is moving to (but that might just inflame things!)

[Harrysmum]

It sounds great! Also probably much more appropriate use of GPs than in a city - dh is a dr and gets endlessly frustrated with people who self-refer to hospital when they should have seen their gp who would have been able to manage the situation (and people wonder why bed-blocking occurs!). Sadly we have moved from a very efficient co-op system for out of hours to being the pilot area for Scotland for the NHS 24 equivalent and it's a disaster (at least as far as the hospital is concerned) with over-referral to hospital and and a much less useful system for patients. Hope your dh feels better with all this support.

[susanmt]

Thanks everyone - dh does feel a lot better! You are right, Janz, it is just that things have changed from how they used to be.
Dh and partner sat down yesterday and wrote a great letter pointing out all the changes which have taken place since they took over the practice, like the fact that in our area of 2000 people there are now 6 defibrillators evenly spaced around the area, and that the surgery hours and access have improved. Also they said what the previous doc (who had been there for 15 years) said - that if you live in the doctors house then you are on call even when you are not, and that people are continually knocking on your door for the tiniest thing (seriously, one Friday night the previous doc had someone knock on his door on the way home from the pub, to say he had had a bit of a sore throat for a week and could he just have a look at it? !!!). Of course, there is also the point that the health board have done no maintenance on the house for 10 years, the roof needs replaced and it is damp!
But they didn't mention that. They did mention about the service offered elsewhere in the country (e.g. Glasgow covered by 2 GP's at night, Inverness and surroundings covered by 1) but held back from mentioning the acute crisis in recruitment and retention og GP's in rural areas, as this sounded too much like a threat!
We'll see what the response is - the HC have no powers to say where the docs should live, and they checked with the health board yesterday - you have to be within an hours drive from all your patients, and dh reckons he can get to all but a couple inside 45 mins, most in 25 mins and all in 50 mins, and to the village in 10 mins, so we are providing a good service. It is just that people think GP's have no life and like being woken up at all hours of the night just cos you are passing.
In fact, I am unfair to the patients here. They are actually really good, but there are a few really demanding ones, (Drs call them 'heartsinks', cos your heart sinks when they walk into the room!) who call an awful lot about nothing much, like you would get anywhere.
Thanks for your support.

[Tigger2]

We have only had the local GP once when DH was vomiting and scittering all over the place every 10 minutes!!. Other than that we have taken the kids to the local hospital some 10 minutes away, we have always received great support from our GP's as some nights it is our own doc and other nights its the other docs from other practices in the town (co-operative). We now have the out of hours nurses at the Garrick in Stranraer, who are also very helpful, and on the couple of times I've had to speak to them they have referred us straight ot the oncall GP. Can't blame you for not wanting to live next door to the surgery though as some people could take advantage of that. Did hear of one woman phoning the out of hours surgery number and demanding to be seen as she thought she had thrush!! Personally I think that your local Health Board are being very unfair.

[Tigger2]

Susnamt where are you, if you don't mind me asking, if you'd rather not say, ok!

[susanmt]

We're in the Outer Hebrides (Isle of Harris). About as remote and rural as you get in the UK!

[susanmt]

Actually, if you have wee kids, we live in a place a bit like Balamory! (was filmed in the Inner Hebrides, in Mull).