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My GP surgery is doing my head in. Breathe out of turn and they have me on a bed, needles sticking in, blood taken out. It's driving me mad.
I have some hospital prescribed medication. That's fine. I understand. No issues.
I have some thyroxine meds from my GP. They make me have blood tests more than I'd like. I wish the hospital would do it. They won't.
Now, at the GP's, I'm getting bothered about fasting bloods, cholesterol, high blood pressure......christonabike!
Can I tell them that I just want my thyroxine and that's it? That I'll take my chances with blood pressure and all that or can they boot me off of their books?
Have you asked your GP why they're doing the extra tests? Your cholesterol will be higher as you're hypo so don't worry too much about that.
I understand that GPs can refuse to treat you.
But you need your blood taking to get the Thyroxine level right? Well that's what they do with my Dad.
Maybe its all a conspiracy to keep people healthy 😯
I suspect you won't get your Thyroxine if you refuse the blood tests. The GP needs to be certain he abides by "First do no harm" and the tests ensure that you don't get any un-wanted side effects. (If I remember correctly you also have some mental health issues and the drugs for that condition may not play nice with the Thyroxine).
Ask for a consult with the GP about the reason for the bloods and other tests.
I doubt they'd strike you off, but I think I'd prefer blood tests to, say, heart failure.
Fasting and blood pressure tests are not normally needed for thyroid monitoring, afaik.
noy happy with your gp? move.
gp's are businesses, they're paid to treat you, whether you need it or not and that includes tests.
Fasting is done before Cholesterol test. High cholesterol isn't good for the heart, high blood pressure isn't good for the heart.
Sounds like the OP is in denial
Chubby I would be more than happy for a GP to check my blood pressure and cholesterol levels, what benefit is there by not doing so?
Chubby - afaik GPs can refuse to carry out certain tests.
ChubbyBlokeInLycra - Member
noy happy with your gp? move.
^ would seam like the obvious thing to do
Thanks for the replies.
"Sounds like the OP is in denial"
"Maybe its all a conspiracy to keep people healthy"
Sounds like funkywhatsit is making huge assumptions again. Knob.
I take so many pils a day I'm surprised I don't rattle. My GP, in my sometimes skewed opinion admittedly, is being a little hysterical. I'm tired of being tested, given yet more pils, taking yet more time off of work....
I need my Lithium, I need my thyroxine......I don't think I can be arsed with statins, blood pressure pils and anything else pushed at me but I really can't face finding a new GP. Change unsettles me, lots. Not in a good way.
I know how you feel I am on medication for blood pressure and get annoyed by the need for regular blood tests . From what you say yours are more frequent than mine . At the heart of it I know my annoyance is in fact silly and my issue not theirs . My high blood pressure could have been identified and treated earlier had I not avoided going for routine tests for a number of years . The drugs have an effect on me the effect has to be reguarly monitored to ensure it is beneficial as opposed to harmful hence the need for regular blood tests . Blood pressure and cholesterol problems tend to be symptomless until too late so the patient ie me gets the impression it is all a pointless fus as they feel fine.
monksie - it would be sensible to make a 10 minute appointment with your GP to request that him/her goes through all your medication and explain why every item has been prescribed. You're clearly upset and that isn't good.
As someone said further up, a mixture of meds could in itself be causing a problem with side effects and obviously affecting how they work. *I think* there's a website that details this, will try and find it for you.
Nobody likes taking pills but it's extremely important that your conditions are managed properly and you understand why and what it is you're taking.
Good luck. 🙂
I suppose you need to look at the blood tests as part of the treatment. You either want the treatment or you don't. I got sick of the blood tests whilst I was on Warfarin, but it was preferable to further problems with a DVT.
Thank you. I'll have a think.
As others have alluded to, if you are taking Thyroxine you need to have regular blood tests (TFTs) to ensure your dosage levels are correct. This is a standard procedure and it'd be questionable if your GP wasn't having them carried out.
As for the hospital not carrying out these tests, with it being a community prescribed med often the prescriber (your GP) has to order the routine blood tests and, due to the way various financial incentives work (not sure if TFTs attract QOF points, I work in secondary care not primary) its likely the GP will want to keep them in house. This said though, when I have needed bloods taken I've just got my GP to print off the order form and had a colleague do them at work. It may be that you can ask for similar from your GP and kill two birds with one stone when you're next at the hospital.
As also alluded to, I would recommend booking an appointment with your GP if you feel your medication intake needs reviewing. GPs are notorious for polypharmacy-ing patients and one of the roles junior doctors have within secondary admissions is wading through patient medications and reducing them to manageable levels (both for our benefit and more importantly, the patient's). This is not an outright criticism of GPs, the nature of their workload means that often they have very limited time to deal with issues such as this.
Finally, if you're not happy with your GP service tell them or complain to your local Clinical Commissioning Group. Nice Dr Smith the GP is a private contractor billing their services to the NHS. If no one complains then said GPs continue doing what they're doing, billing the NHS for sub-par service with the NHS 'proper' (secondary care/hospitals) picking up the pieces.
It's your NHS.
To answer your question - no they won't boot you off their books.
It's your body and you can do what you wish with it. You are perfectly entitled to make informed choices to refuse tests or treatment. Your GP won't be worried about money just you. It's a little disturbing that people think GPs are money motivated when actually they all go to work to do an increasingly difficult job caring for their patients.
The only catch to this is that your GP takes responsibility for the effects of your medication when he signs your prescription. Any essential monitoring tests are a reasonable expectation on his/her part as without them you may take too much / too little and so become unwell. Therefore, if you unreasonably refused even essential monitoring they would quite rightly have huge concern. It's only about the best care for you.
You really should go and talk to your GP and sort this out. They won't want you unhappy either.