This is AIBU in the health section

[Gettingbysomehow]

So I asked for a blood test as I know Im anaemic.
After much grumpiness from my GP who didnt want to let me have the test sure enough I came back anaemic.
GP cant understand why and wants me to have this test and that test.
Do they ever look at your medical records? Im a podiatrist and check every pationts medical records. It only takes 10 seconds and they all have emis as do we at the hospital with all this information on.
If he'd looked at my records he would have noticed that Ive had a major operation recently and have been on mounjaro for a year and a half and lost 5 stone so my absorption of iron is poor.
Problem solved. Well you must have a fit test....if you look at my records I did one 2 months ago and it was clear.
I have ample ferritin Im just not absorbing iron very well.
I just hung up then. I thought why am I talking to someone who isnt even looking at my medical history or test results. I may as well just treat myself.
I get this every time I book an online consultation. Im so sick of it. I end up just talking to AI and treating myself.
What is the point of talking to a GP if they know nothing about you, literally nothing and are not willing to look.

I am finding the gp system ridiculous. I recently asked for a blood test and hormone review as I suspect peri. I'm feeling awful. They sent me to the sexual health clinic who promptly explained they're not there for that. If the gp had read the econsult they insisted I spent too much of my life filling out then they could have saved us all going round again. So now I have to submit another econsult and I've wasted the sexual health clinic's time too.
I can only assume their goal was to put me off and save themselves expensive hrt prescriptions and keep to some target or other.

Seriously I dont know why we bother. I keep my econsults short and to the point but it doesnt make any difference. Im seriously thinking of seeing a private GP who will at least listen to me. I have a very clear and illuminating anaemia plan from Gemini (AI) which will sort me out.
As for HRT I did it all privately. It cost a bit but I lost the will to live talking to the surgery.
I do feel for you.

How much did it cost? I'm seriously considering it because I just get told I'm anxious. Yes I am. Because I feel awful!

Well I went to a clinic in Tsunton and it cost about 1K for a year after which I thought this is ridiculous and insisted my GP put my hrt on prescription which they eventually did to get rid of me.
But they were so reluctant to do anything and I was really suffering.

I totally agree.

Gps seem to run on tramlines with tickbox rules without any individual knowledge of the patient.

My elderly father in law has complex serious health issues and has presented (if and when he can a actually get an appointment) with multiple symptoms which I would stake my house on being related to the various medications he is on and yet the gp will only discuss one symptom at a time and then sends him for whatever test could possibly be related to that single symptom.

They insist a “medication review” is a separate issue so won’t discuss this at the time my father in law attends reporting feeling unwell.

I am a nurse so like you I do have some medical knowledge and it frustrates me that my poor father in law is having his time wasted and anxiety raised unnecessarily.

Plus of course nhs resources are being wasted.

The gps are only concerned with keeling to the ten minute appointment limit and discussing what they think is a single issue at a time.

This means my father in law, who struggles to walk and to get to the practice, has to fight the system to try to make multiple appointments every other week or so.

Often he just gives up because he doesn’t have the energy to keep trying.

Gps have replaced clinical judgement with flow charts and protocols and nobody reads the patients notes.

There is no continuity of care as patients rarely see the same gp twice because they have go be grateful for any appointment they can get.

Patients are suffering great harm as many fall through the cracks in this ridiculous system.

I find it's the protocols the other way that are the issue. they can't use their clinical judgement and refer you or put you on medication or whatever unless you meet the tick boxes. I have hugely variable blood pressure, like varying 60 points or more in a day, including some very high ones. But the rules are only to use the average of the best ones, so it comes out OK. And sometimes I worry things will be missed that way.

And lots of other examples - the GP can't just use her judgement, but only what the rules say. It's all flow charts and criteria, and there is no time to look back at any previous results or consultations, so when looking at one thing now, she doesn't know/remember that I had a whole history of being on beta blockers, being on other BP tablets, losing lots of weight, having other symptoms that might be relevant, etc. It's only what shows up today that matters. I have normal kidney results in my latest urine tests, for example, but they are borderline high, and used to be at the low end (ACR used to be 0.3 or 0.4, always, now 3.0, but the normal range goes up to 3.5). It's obviously still OK, but the fact that there's been a dramatic shift over a few months doesn't get any attention, because it's normal. The fact that it could be signifying a potential decline isn't regarded, as they only look at one value at a time.

That's the sort of thing that makes it hard to know whether it's worth asking more about or not, because they only want to look at what is happening now, with one symptom at a time, whereas I am interested in knowing if it's an actual trend that suggests something is getting worse and I can do something about it if so. Or looking at blood pressure, not just in the context of is it normal according to the nice rules, but what about for someone who had been on tablets before, or who has other possible heart issues, etc. - none of that context gets included. It's the continuity of care and being seen more holistically, with background and other factors taken into context that is now missing. Not the GPs fault, as I know they have too many patients, too little time, too few resources, and too much interference from the government about what they are allowed to refer for or prescribe. But it is a noticeable change to patients.

Our gp has gone very militant on the one issue at a time thing. But how do I know, as a non medical person, whether my stomach issues are a separate issue to my rash or not? So I now have to book two separate appointments and presumably there might be some weird underlying disease that connects the two which they'll never be able to diagnose because they only see each issue separately.