G.P. practice very poor
Discussion
My local GP practice seems to be going from bad to worse.
Blood tests missed prostate cancer, told by receptionist ‘no further action required’.
Post radiotherapy treatment leaves me with ongoing internal blood loss.
Anaemia found to be caused by critical low hemoglobin, good GP service for this straight into A&E.
Now two months later Anaemia issue again, ring for GP appointment and offered one in January.
I feel very ill I will go to A&E now, receptionist says I will get a Doctor to call you today.
Phone call, hello I’m the emergency doctor, what the problem?
I say I have Anaemia and feel terrible, at which point the emergency Doctor interrupts into a aggressive mode telling me my issue is one for a normal day appointment.
I am then allowed time to further explain my issue and history, Doctor had clearly not read my medical history.
Doctor listened and arranged for a blood test for me, which is all I wanted to ascertain wether I required another blood transfusion.
Everything seems to be a fight to be able to access medical assistance.
Am I alone in feeling the services are just very poor now.
Blood tests missed prostate cancer, told by receptionist ‘no further action required’.
Post radiotherapy treatment leaves me with ongoing internal blood loss.
Anaemia found to be caused by critical low hemoglobin, good GP service for this straight into A&E.
Now two months later Anaemia issue again, ring for GP appointment and offered one in January.
I feel very ill I will go to A&E now, receptionist says I will get a Doctor to call you today.
Phone call, hello I’m the emergency doctor, what the problem?
I say I have Anaemia and feel terrible, at which point the emergency Doctor interrupts into a aggressive mode telling me my issue is one for a normal day appointment.
I am then allowed time to further explain my issue and history, Doctor had clearly not read my medical history.
Doctor listened and arranged for a blood test for me, which is all I wanted to ascertain wether I required another blood transfusion.
Everything seems to be a fight to be able to access medical assistance.
Am I alone in feeling the services are just very poor now.
Would have to say where i am at least that i agree with you, I have a long term health condition that requires me to have constant monitoring, I also have to apply for my driving license every year and one particular year the GP ticked a wrong box on a medical form and it resulted in me losing my job and a lot of things with it, the surgery couldn't care less and almost resulted in me taking them to court through loss of earnings and negligence.
Outside of that particular instance, what use to be a matter of a few days for an appointment depending on what the issue was can now be well over a month, and when you do see someone it tends to be a junior doctor who when you describe what the issue is then dissappears for 10 minutes to ask a more senior doctor in the surgery for advice as most of the experienced doctors have all upped and left, one time i had a nurse who was very erratic in her behaviour when she saw a result in my bloods that she referred me to the hospital weeks and weeks later for something that i knew wasn't an issue and wasting my time as well as the hospitals time which was confirmed when i attended the hospital and the consultant agreed that he was fed up of having GP surgeries basically palming people onto the hospital for trivial things and thus stopping people who really need the appointments from getting them.
Once upon a time i use to just think it was my surgery that was like this but when you hear others speak across the country its seemingly all over the place.
Outside of that particular instance, what use to be a matter of a few days for an appointment depending on what the issue was can now be well over a month, and when you do see someone it tends to be a junior doctor who when you describe what the issue is then dissappears for 10 minutes to ask a more senior doctor in the surgery for advice as most of the experienced doctors have all upped and left, one time i had a nurse who was very erratic in her behaviour when she saw a result in my bloods that she referred me to the hospital weeks and weeks later for something that i knew wasn't an issue and wasting my time as well as the hospitals time which was confirmed when i attended the hospital and the consultant agreed that he was fed up of having GP surgeries basically palming people onto the hospital for trivial things and thus stopping people who really need the appointments from getting them.
Once upon a time i use to just think it was my surgery that was like this but when you hear others speak across the country its seemingly all over the place.
I find if you can get to the doctor, or at least speak to you are ok. My issue is getting past the non medically trained gatekeeper on the phone. I get asked to explain my condition and ailments to a non doctor before they decide if I can see a doctor. I have spoken to the practice about this and they say it's their procedure.
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
cliffords said:
I find if you can get to the doctor, or at least speak to you are ok. My issue is getting past the non medically trained gatekeeper on the phone. I get asked to explain my condition and ailments to a non doctor before they decide if I can see a doctor. I have spoken to the practice about this and they say it's their procedure.
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
I used to work in the admin side of a GP surgery(I didn't deal with things on the appointment side personally), but got to know most of the receptionists very well, they hated having to ask people's ailments, once upon a time they just booked in directly with a GP, however the doctors became unhappy with reception because they were seeing things that a nurse could have dealt with so the GPs then tell the receptionists they have to get the patient's ailments to "signpost" them, there was a set of questions the receptionist asked, which then told the receptionist what to tell the patient, this was created by the GPs. I suspect your GP surgery will have the same set up, the receptionist hasn't decided you can't see a doctor, the doctor has. What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
Problem for the receptionists, they got a b
king from management if they don't give a reason for the patient's appointment(they also got a bking if they go against what the signposting says), but they also get the patients shouting, swearing and sometimes threatening the receptionists simply for asking the problem, they do all that quite often for minimum wage. I once got some post from reception just as a man well in his 50s was shouting and screaming at the 19 year old girl on reception just because she asked what the reason for needing an appointment was, as she had to. I had to intervene and tell him to stop shouting or leave, he did calm down and told the receptionist the problem and the triage system decided he could see a GP. Some people make their own lives harder by being stubborn or just a bully (this guy was definitely a bully, though backed down quickly with me)There's an awful lot of issues with GP surgeries, and I really think something needs to change urgently, but those issues aren't the receptionists fault, they're not purposely being difficult, for the most part they're doing all they can do for a s
t load of abuse from patients, management and GPs. There is though some thoroughly unpleasant receptionists, who do seem to get a kick out of being difficult but the vast majority are just doing their best.
Our surgery has this system where you don't ring up for an appointment but 'fill in a form' on their website or send them a message in the same form using the NHS app. This form can only be accessed during office hours.
They say
that you can still ring up and/ or turn up in person and the 'care navigator' will help you fill the form in.
Trouble is then they say they will triage and respond in two days. Imagine if you have got there and are then sent home to wait for a response?
Now everytime I've sent a request, so far apart from one occasion it's been because the pharmacy has said I need to contact as they've screwed up a repeat prescription again, they've responded within the day with a text to confirm corrected.
Last week I needed to check something with a medical professional urgently, two days and by email wasn't going to hack it. Judged it wasn't 999 worthy so ended up talking to 111. They were professional, asked reasonable questions and while some of them seemed a bit off the wall, got sorted, a clinician will ring you back in 30 mins, and if for some reason they can't we will send an ambulance. This was 8am. 10 am got the call back, more discussion, more questions, decision made situation under control, speak to GP with guidance on questions to ask.
Filled in NHS app sent to GP, got a phone call back in 30 mins that duty doctor would call. Appointment next week based on a call 8 hours later.
Go back not that many years, a call with the problem I had would likely have resulted in get your arse in here now, will take a look and decide if to send you to A and E.
I know people have been critical of 111 but I found them helpful and professional.
The GP surgery claims they are snowed under with demand, yet they are also advertising to recruit out of area patients. Doesn't compute. Rumours that they are about to pull out of their NHS contract at which point their operations will have to put under emergency control of whoever. This is THE ONLY GP practice in a town of 20k ish.
They say
that you can still ring up and/ or turn up in person and the 'care navigator' will help you fill the form in.Trouble is then they say they will triage and respond in two days. Imagine if you have got there and are then sent home to wait for a response?
Now everytime I've sent a request, so far apart from one occasion it's been because the pharmacy has said I need to contact as they've screwed up a repeat prescription again, they've responded within the day with a text to confirm corrected.
Last week I needed to check something with a medical professional urgently, two days and by email wasn't going to hack it. Judged it wasn't 999 worthy so ended up talking to 111. They were professional, asked reasonable questions and while some of them seemed a bit off the wall, got sorted, a clinician will ring you back in 30 mins, and if for some reason they can't we will send an ambulance. This was 8am. 10 am got the call back, more discussion, more questions, decision made situation under control, speak to GP with guidance on questions to ask.
Filled in NHS app sent to GP, got a phone call back in 30 mins that duty doctor would call. Appointment next week based on a call 8 hours later.
Go back not that many years, a call with the problem I had would likely have resulted in get your arse in here now, will take a look and decide if to send you to A and E.
I know people have been critical of 111 but I found them helpful and professional.
The GP surgery claims they are snowed under with demand, yet they are also advertising to recruit out of area patients. Doesn't compute. Rumours that they are about to pull out of their NHS contract at which point their operations will have to put under emergency control of whoever. This is THE ONLY GP practice in a town of 20k ish.
There's a shortage of doctors in the NHS because we have collectively failed to motivate and facilitate students to become doctors and to then retain them in the profession. If we want change, we have to get the cheque book out and spend more money on healthcare.
To give a rough idea of the numbers, Germany's GDP per capita is about 10% greater than that of the UK and they spend about 12.7% of GDP on healthcare whereas we spend about 11.3%, so they are spending about 25% more per patient than we are.
To give a rough idea of the numbers, Germany's GDP per capita is about 10% greater than that of the UK and they spend about 12.7% of GDP on healthcare whereas we spend about 11.3%, so they are spending about 25% more per patient than we are.
it's a complete lottery in my experience.
Moved house last year and the new GP is night and day, anything urgent or my kid has a cough it's same day, otherwise 3 days wait or so. You can see in the waiting room, they have things under control. You can call up, or fill in a form online and get a text with your appointment time!
Compared to my last GP, 20 miles away, which ran a hybrid service where you had first come serve A&E style system where you turn up at 9am and wait for 4 hours and maybe get seen, or call up for a booking about 4 weeks in advance.
Throughput appeared about the same. I guess the demographic was a lot older. Perhaps my new clinic has a list stuffed full of healthy kids or something
Moved house last year and the new GP is night and day, anything urgent or my kid has a cough it's same day, otherwise 3 days wait or so. You can see in the waiting room, they have things under control. You can call up, or fill in a form online and get a text with your appointment time!
Compared to my last GP, 20 miles away, which ran a hybrid service where you had first come serve A&E style system where you turn up at 9am and wait for 4 hours and maybe get seen, or call up for a booking about 4 weeks in advance.
Throughput appeared about the same. I guess the demographic was a lot older. Perhaps my new clinic has a list stuffed full of healthy kids or something
We are lucky in a rural area, our practice has 7 GP’s for a village of 2000 people but with a reasonable catchment area, maybe 5 mile radius. Probably nearer 5000 people.
Can usually get an appointment or phone call with gp same day, if it sounds remotely urgent you’ll get one same day, always.
OP, that doesn’t help your situation but I’m adding it for a bit of balance. I take it you don’t have private healthcare?
Can usually get an appointment or phone call with gp same day, if it sounds remotely urgent you’ll get one same day, always.
OP, that doesn’t help your situation but I’m adding it for a bit of balance. I take it you don’t have private healthcare?
carlove said:
cliffords said:
I find if you can get to the doctor, or at least speak to you are ok. My issue is getting past the non medically trained gatekeeper on the phone. I get asked to explain my condition and ailments to a non doctor before they decide if I can see a doctor. I have spoken to the practice about this and they say it's their procedure.
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
I used to work in the admin side of a GP surgery(I didn't deal with things on the appointment side personally), but got to know most of the receptionists very well, they hated having to ask people's ailments, once upon a time they just booked in directly with a GP, however the doctors became unhappy with reception because they were seeing things that a nurse could have dealt with so the GPs then tell the receptionists they have to get the patient's ailments to "signpost" them, there was a set of questions the receptionist asked, which then told the receptionist what to tell the patient, this was created by the GPs. I suspect your GP surgery will have the same set up, the receptionist hasn't decided you can't see a doctor, the doctor has. What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
Problem for the receptionists, they got a b
king from management if they don't give a reason for the patient's appointment(they also got a bking if they go against what the signposting says), but they also get the patients shouting, swearing and sometimes threatening the receptionists simply for asking the problem, they do all that quite often for minimum wage. I once got some post from reception just as a man well in his 50s was shouting and screaming at the 19 year old girl on reception just because she asked what the reason for needing an appointment was, as she had to. I had to intervene and tell him to stop shouting or leave, he did calm down and told the receptionist the problem and the triage system decided he could see a GP. Some people make their own lives harder by being stubborn or just a bully (this guy was definitely a bully, though backed down quickly with me)There's an awful lot of issues with GP surgeries, and I really think something needs to change urgently, but those issues aren't the receptionists fault, they're not purposely being difficult, for the most part they're doing all they can do for a s
t load of abuse from patients, management and GPs. There is though some thoroughly unpleasant receptionists, who do seem to get a kick out of being difficult but the vast majority are just doing their best.
I have to say I found our GP practise to be very different the other week. We have not had a need to use the services since moving here 11 years ago. Last week the wife had sciatica and was in a lot of pain. We filled in an online form at about 4pm. The next morning she was invited to attend at 11:30. Saw the doctor at 11:35, good diagnosis and explanation of what was wrong and what painkillers were recommended, got the prescription sorted in 10 minutes at the onsite pharmacy and back home by 12:30. She is much better now.
MBVitoria said:
carlove said:
cliffords said:
I find if you can get to the doctor, or at least speak to you are ok. My issue is getting past the non medically trained gatekeeper on the phone. I get asked to explain my condition and ailments to a non doctor before they decide if I can see a doctor. I have spoken to the practice about this and they say it's their procedure.
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
I used to work in the admin side of a GP surgery(I didn't deal with things on the appointment side personally), but got to know most of the receptionists very well, they hated having to ask people's ailments, once upon a time they just booked in directly with a GP, however the doctors became unhappy with reception because they were seeing things that a nurse could have dealt with so the GPs then tell the receptionists they have to get the patient's ailments to "signpost" them, there was a set of questions the receptionist asked, which then told the receptionist what to tell the patient, this was created by the GPs. I suspect your GP surgery will have the same set up, the receptionist hasn't decided you can't see a doctor, the doctor has. What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
Problem for the receptionists, they got a b
king from management if they don't give a reason for the patient's appointment(they also got a bking if they go against what the signposting says), but they also get the patients shouting, swearing and sometimes threatening the receptionists simply for asking the problem, they do all that quite often for minimum wage. I once got some post from reception just as a man well in his 50s was shouting and screaming at the 19 year old girl on reception just because she asked what the reason for needing an appointment was, as she had to. I had to intervene and tell him to stop shouting or leave, he did calm down and told the receptionist the problem and the triage system decided he could see a GP. Some people make their own lives harder by being stubborn or just a bully (this guy was definitely a bully, though backed down quickly with me)There's an awful lot of issues with GP surgeries, and I really think something needs to change urgently, but those issues aren't the receptionists fault, they're not purposely being difficult, for the most part they're doing all they can do for a s
t load of abuse from patients, management and GPs. There is though some thoroughly unpleasant receptionists, who do seem to get a kick out of being difficult but the vast majority are just doing their best.
It's as I have written in my original post. They have no medical training, yet decide if I do get to see the Doc. If they are doing true triage then they need to be nurse equivalent.
cliffords said:
I find if you can get to the doctor, or at least speak to you are ok. My issue is getting past the non medically trained gatekeeper on the phone. I get asked to explain my condition and ailments to a non doctor before they decide if I can see a doctor. I have spoken to the practice about this and they say it's their procedure.
What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
Chap living close by I got to know through our interest and attendance in steam rallies. We exchanged our experience of how our cancers were treated by the GP and hospitals. His health situation was identical to mine and we used the same GP practice. The difference in treatment came about after the first round of blood tests, he, like myself were advised by the receptionist that the blood tests were in and ‘no further actions required’. I did not accept that statement and insisted on a discussion with my Doctor. Doctor later phoned me and gave me the opportunity to explain my issue. Doctor listened and agreed, referred me and prostate cancer was found to be aggressive. My pal told me that he had accepted the receptionist statement and regretted his decision. He told me his cancer had spread rapidly through his body and that his prognosis was terminal, not treatable. He has since died from what was a treatable condition. What will happen if Fred drops dead because a receptionist decided he can't talk to the Doctor ?
Sadly I have so little confidence in the GP surgery, another service that is broken imo.
Our doctors doesn`t have a receptionist, they have a "Patient Care Navigator" whose job is to make you feel incredibly grateful for a 3 minute phone consultation with a doctor, no matter what the problem. Face to face appointments are a thing of the past, with there only being a maximum of one doctor and a part time nurse in attendance, where there used to be at least 5 doctors and two nurses. I used to get quarterly blood tests and check ups, but I get an annual blood test now and have to call if I get any problems. Even then, I struggle to get an appointment. It took me weeks of phone calls and having to attend another of their surgeries to see a nurse (not even a doctor) about a foot problem (I am diabetic, so it was a concern), to be told she would have a look but "wasn't trained in feet". I haven't seen my diabetic nurse since before Covid, and apparently that is how it is now. At least I have the option of private healthcare if needed and the doctors will now supply a referral letter by calling the receptionist / Patient Care Navigator, with no need to actually speak to a doctor.
It does seem very area dependant though, as my Mother and Step father live in the next county and their healthcare from the NHS is exceptional. Doctors and dentists appointments are available with a day or so and even the hospitals seem to be able to get people in within weeks, rather than the months, or even longer here.
It does seem very area dependant though, as my Mother and Step father live in the next county and their healthcare from the NHS is exceptional. Doctors and dentists appointments are available with a day or so and even the hospitals seem to be able to get people in within weeks, rather than the months, or even longer here.
ATG said:
There's a shortage of doctors in the NHS because we have collectively failed to motivate and facilitate students to become doctors and to then retain them in the profession. If we want change, we have to get the cheque book out and spend more money on healthcare.
To give a rough idea of the numbers, Germany's GDP per capita is about 10% greater than that of the UK and they spend about 12.7% of GDP on healthcare whereas we spend about 11.3%, so they are spending about 25% more per patient than we are.
Spending a bigger and bigger proportion of a fixed (and even shrinking) pie on current spending is how a country enters an economic death spiral. To give a rough idea of the numbers, Germany's GDP per capita is about 10% greater than that of the UK and they spend about 12.7% of GDP on healthcare whereas we spend about 11.3%, so they are spending about 25% more per patient than we are.
Suffering with the latest lurgy doing the rounds at the moment, after 10 days called the DR's, got a phone appointment that morning at 10am, spoke to the DR who said I want to check a couple of things in person can you come in at 3:20pm that afternoon. Got to the surgery and was in with the DR within 5 minutes.
It's not all bad out there.
It's not all bad out there.
The fundamental problem with GP practices is the way they're paid, they get a three figure sum per year for every patient on the books whether they see them or not, there is no incentive from them to see anyone other than for the bonuses they get for handing out the likes of statins and vaccines etc.
People tend to think GP practices are part of the NHS, they're not, they're private businesses that are contracted to work solely for the NHS, many are partnerships where each partner gets paid a share of the profits, this means they they still get the same income if they all work part time which most do, GPs say they're very busy but the main reason for that is because they're squeezing the workload into a short working week.
GPs have always been paid this way, it worked fine before the disastrous (for patients) GP contract agreed by the Labour gov in 2003/4, before that they were obliged to provide 24 hour/365 day care themselves or by providing a locum, they had an incentive to keep patients healthy to reduce out of hours calls (a stitch in time and all that), but now they don't seem to care because they can just pass you on to the overstretched hospitals.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335400/G...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6314301.stm
I've never understood why they get a massive pension from the NHS when they're self employed or employed by a business.
People tend to think GP practices are part of the NHS, they're not, they're private businesses that are contracted to work solely for the NHS, many are partnerships where each partner gets paid a share of the profits, this means they they still get the same income if they all work part time which most do, GPs say they're very busy but the main reason for that is because they're squeezing the workload into a short working week.
GPs have always been paid this way, it worked fine before the disastrous (for patients) GP contract agreed by the Labour gov in 2003/4, before that they were obliged to provide 24 hour/365 day care themselves or by providing a locum, they had an incentive to keep patients healthy to reduce out of hours calls (a stitch in time and all that), but now they don't seem to care because they can just pass you on to the overstretched hospitals.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335400/G...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6314301.stm
I've never understood why they get a massive pension from the NHS when they're self employed or employed by a business.
Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff