GPs - What is going on?
Discussion
Phones for an appointment to get my leg looked at after insect bite. Pretty bad reaction, hot, swelling, and getting worse. Gp refuses to see me, rather asks me to send picture in. I sjed in the picture, which really doesn't tell the whole story. They fob me off saying no need to worry, here is some cream. It gets worse. They again block any kind of fave to face appointment.
I end up doing an online consultation with 111. They eventually phone me ten hours later, by which I've gone to A and E with a massively deteriorating situation. Hospital diagnose cellulitis and put me on the mother of all antibiotics.
If the GP had seen me, rather than the receptionist asking for photos, they would have seen the swelling first hand and it could have been sorted easily. Instead I end up going to A and E which is packed, 8hr wait.
What is the point of a GP now? It's madness.
I end up doing an online consultation with 111. They eventually phone me ten hours later, by which I've gone to A and E with a massively deteriorating situation. Hospital diagnose cellulitis and put me on the mother of all antibiotics.
If the GP had seen me, rather than the receptionist asking for photos, they would have seen the swelling first hand and it could have been sorted easily. Instead I end up going to A and E which is packed, 8hr wait.
What is the point of a GP now? It's madness.
Tbh whilst I’ve not had the ending you had to your situation I too explained I’d like to see someone about my eye (haven’t seen a GP since 2013) to be told in a weeks time you’ll get a phone call (that i did receive) to be told it’s probably stress or diet or sleep but go to the optician just to be safe to get my eyes checked over…..
I was talking to a a guy at work with a wife who works in A&E and I think the Hospitals are getting ceremoniously pissed off with GPs not seeing folk who end up in A&E.
Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
I was talking to a a guy at work with a wife who works in A&E and I think the Hospitals are getting ceremoniously pissed off with GPs not seeing folk who end up in A&E.
Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
CooperS said:
I was talking to a a guy at work with a wife who works in A&E and I think the Hospitals are getting ceremoniously pissed off with GPs not seeing folk who end up in A&E.
Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
Yeah. It's not good. Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
dhutch said:
CooperS said:
I was talking to a a guy at work with a wife who works in A&E and I think the Hospitals are getting ceremoniously pissed off with GPs not seeing folk who end up in A&E.
Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
Yeah. It's not good. Saying that i know of two young GPs who come out of the profession due to stress and feeling over worked. That’s a long time to train to pull the parachute before your 35.
It's a bit of a lottery. Partly dependent on which part of the country you live in, but also on the quality of the practice, and the individual practitioner
I've moved house twice in the last 5 years and each time I researched local practices carefully before chosing one. So far they've been great.
Personally, I spend as much time chosing a GP as I would a car (ok, slight overstatement
) because it has such a big impact on my quality of life.
I've moved house twice in the last 5 years and each time I researched local practices carefully before chosing one. So far they've been great.
Personally, I spend as much time chosing a GP as I would a car (ok, slight overstatement
) because it has such a big impact on my quality of life.Slowboathome said:
It's a bit of a lottery. Partly dependent on which part of the country you live in, but also on the quality of the practice, and the individual practitioner
I've moved house twice in the last 5 years and each time I researched local practices carefully before chosing one. So far they've been great.
Personally, I spend as much time chosing a GP as I would a car (ok, slight overstatement) because it has such a big impact on my quality of life.
That’s fine but quite often there isn’t a choice. My last GP was a shambles and the group have been subject to hundreds of complaints, MP involvement and it is still ongoing. No face to face, they even turned off e consult. They’ve built another two thousand houses who all will have to use the same service.I've moved house twice in the last 5 years and each time I researched local practices carefully before chosing one. So far they've been great.
Personally, I spend as much time chosing a GP as I would a car (ok, slight overstatement
) because it has such a big impact on my quality of life.We’ve moved and fortunately have managed to get a decent GP practice but there was no choice, we just happen to have moved into their catchment area.
I know - my elderly mum's in one of the worst areas in the country for GP services. No chance of an appointment.
My last home was in a village with just one practice, but luckily they were good.
Current place has 3 within the town. I stuck a request for recommendations on Facebook when I moved here and went with the most votes. They've been good so far.
My last home was in a village with just one practice, but luckily they were good.
Current place has 3 within the town. I stuck a request for recommendations on Facebook when I moved here and went with the most votes. They've been good so far.
Being a GP is so good that 42% are lookingto leave the profession within 5 years.
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/about-us/news/2022/june/ur...
Its become a dumping ground for many of the other social and executive services, coupled with increasing demand, inappropriate use by some of the public, and a succesion of governments who have never had an appropriate recruitment or funding strategy.
As for salaried GP pay, few if any hit 6 figures and thats before indemnity costs.
GP partners are becoming fewer as the return vs administrative burden is mismatched and hence practises close omce there are no partners remaining.
https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/gp-pa...
There are significantly easier ways to earn that income which require less training, less responsibility, and less ire from a stoked public being misled by politicians.
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/about-us/news/2022/june/ur...
Its become a dumping ground for many of the other social and executive services, coupled with increasing demand, inappropriate use by some of the public, and a succesion of governments who have never had an appropriate recruitment or funding strategy.
As for salaried GP pay, few if any hit 6 figures and thats before indemnity costs.
GP partners are becoming fewer as the return vs administrative burden is mismatched and hence practises close omce there are no partners remaining.
https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/gp-pa...
There are significantly easier ways to earn that income which require less training, less responsibility, and less ire from a stoked public being misled by politicians.
Tyre Smoke said:
Perhaps. But they signed up for that with their eyes open.
They didn't have to decide to be a GP on £100k a year.
No, and many are moving on...They didn't have to decide to be a GP on £100k a year.
There are too few doctors and nurses for too many patients. It really is as simple as that, the system is overwhelmed. And there's no end in sight, no plan to fix it, and the government and press regularly run "lazy, overpaid GP" stories.
No wonder there's a recruitment and retention crisis.
Bill said:
Tyre Smoke said:
Perhaps. But they signed up for that with their eyes open.
They didn't have to decide to be a GP on £100k a year.
No, and many are moving on...They didn't have to decide to be a GP on £100k a year.
There are too few doctors and nurses for too many patients. It really is as simple as that, the system is overwhelmed. And there's no end in sight, no plan to fix it, and the government and press regularly run "lazy, overpaid GP" stories.
No wonder there's a recruitment and retention crisis.
When you start medical training, signing up for a decade long degree at the age of 18, you might have some idea that it's going to be hard work, but in your late teen you have absolutely no idea what life if going to look like in your 30s trying to juggle an impossible job role with home and family life.
You then have very limited alternative career options, you can go an work for another company who do it differently, you can't even easily switch to a similar speciality or department within the company you work. Basically if you are a doctor in the UK you have to work for the NHS. Which is why moving to Australia on the other side of the world is not an uncommon route out. You can do locum work, or switch to half time or 80% time, and you might be able to do some private work, but otherwise you are basically stuck with more of the same, or starting back almost at ground zero.
Doctors, including GPs, are always going to be paid professional wages, as highly trained specialists whos actions are often literally life or death decisions. However if you work out their hourly rate even ignoring deductions for things like the life long indemnity insurance they need to do their job, and compulsory training and exams that costs thousands, it's actually behind most graduate roles.
My partner is a junior doctor and given she does a 60h week by the time you factor in her 'on calls', during which she is working full time for a 12h day Friday+Saturday+Sunday, her hourly rate is well under mine as an engineer banking £50-60k a year for a 36-42hr week.
Yes the dailyfail runs headlines that GPs are paid £120k. But that's a full time GP, and they basically don't exist. With the very small minority who are holding down a 100hour week are only doing so because they have a partner who doesn't work does everything else from looking after the kids to making their lunch and having tea in the table from when they get home at half ten at night 15hours after they started their shift. Almost all GPs work more like 'half time' which is more like half the money, while still doing a 50h+ week.
You might think that looking at a photo of a rash every 10mins it's easy, but that's mixed in with trying to tell a cold from nose cancer, assessing the mental health of a teenage with depression, counciling a family who have lost a loved one, and convincing a 65yo bloke that doing his physio will make a life changing different to his recovery, all in 10min slots. If you overrun, you don't get lunch, and finish hours late. In the ten minutes you also have had to read the patients history, and document what you have done well enough for the next person to pick it up where you left of, so actually you have more like 3mins. Then after the booked slots, you have to right a referral letter for anyone who you have referred to anything else. Reply to all the incoming letters and emails, and if you're a partner at the practice, all run the business side of things. Oh, and if you make a mistake, they might sue you, which will make life hell for a year even with the indemnity insurance you forked out for every year.
They are a in a mess, and that's hitting the front line service hard, but I have absolute respect for anyone still doing it, and my god wouldn't it be worse without a GP at all.
I have family and friends who work in A&E as well, if you think that's any easier, it isn't and it's also getting worse fast like every other medical role within the country.
Timely that this has just popped up.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/26/nh...
"The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4."
“The equivalent of 1,348 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs were working in the NHS when the pandemic hit in March 2020 than there were in 2015,”
Anyone not alarmed by these, pre-pandemic, figures needs their head looking at.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/26/nh...
"The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4."
“The equivalent of 1,348 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs were working in the NHS when the pandemic hit in March 2020 than there were in 2015,”
Anyone not alarmed by these, pre-pandemic, figures needs their head looking at.
I got a call saying I needed to see the doctor after a recent blood test. Asked to book an appointment, but none available for the next two weeks, which is all they could book. Tried another three times since then, but still nothing available. Wouldn't be so had, but it's them that want to see me !
Not going into too many details but in the last year me and my OH have had some incredibly poor service from our GP practice and the NHS. I now have an issue thats going take months if not years to resolve itself despite me battling the GP. My OH has had similarly poor service. They really haven't a clue and actually trying to get a face to face is virtually impossible. If I was in a position to go private I would. The NHS can f
k right off. The staff might be caring and knowledgeable but the NHS system is broken beyond repair.
k right off. The staff might be caring and knowledgeable but the NHS system is broken beyond repair.Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff